Phil Neville was parachuted into the England Women’s job after many of the candidates withdrew because of the “scrutiny” it would bring, the Football Association’s head of women’s football has revealed.

Baroness Campbell, who led the search for Mark Sampson’s replacement, attempted to quell the storm around Neville’s appointment by disclosing the reason she was forced to look beyond her original shortlist.

The choice of Neville to succeed Sampson on Tuesday was widely condemned both due to his lack of managerial experience and as a result of the re-emergence of Twitter posts anti-discrimination campaigners branded “misogynistic and sexist”.

Revealing why four candidates for the job all withdrew from the recruitment process, Campbell told the BBC: “Many of them, having seen the way Mark’s departure was dealt with by our media - whatever the rights and wrongs of that - were very nervous of the scrutiny.

“Not just for themselves, necessarily, but for their families.