Issue No. 594
Sports
Previous issue
Site map
|
|
11 - 17 July 2002 Issue No. 594 Sports |
Current issue Previous issue Site map | |
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Search for a French successor
FRENCH football chief Claude Simonet says there are "three or four names" in contention to succeed sacked national coach Roger Lemerre but a decision won't be taken before 14 July.
Simonet favours Jean-Francois Domergue, who guided Le Havre to promotion last season, but French great Michel Platini is championing Lyon's title-winning coach Jacques Santini and former national coach Aime Jacquet prefers under-21 trainer Raymond Domenech.
Lemerre, who led the French soccer team's catastrophic World Cup title defence, was fired from his job as national coach last week by French soccer's governing body. Lemerre was "discharged from his position as coach", Simonet said after a meeting of the body's federal council.
Lemerre's departure had been expected since France was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup last month. The team failed to win a match or score a goal, making for the worst title defence in the history of the tournament.
Lemerre, who took over as coach after France's 1998 World Cup triumph, refused to resign. "Resigning amounts to recognising that a mistake was made," Simonet said. "In my opinion there was no mistake. A change like this... can be linked to weariness, to a desire for change. Perhaps one day we'll change the president of the FFF."
Simonet said the council thanked Lemerre, who was at the meeting but refused to speak to the press. He said Lemerre, 61, would remain an employee of the FFF's national technical directorate, although he didn't say in what capacity.
France was only the third titleholder to go out in the first round of the World Cup, after Italy in 1950 and Brazil in 1966. Unlike France, both those teams managed victories before being eliminated.
Lemerre took the helm of the French team when his predecessor, Aime Jacquet, resigned after winning the 1998 World Cup.
Sticking to an almost identical line-up, Lemerre established his reputation as a worthy successor by steering France to victory in the 2000 European Championship. Just before the World Cup, his contract as team coach was extended until July 2004.
But a hostile attitude toward the media and a cold public persona ensured that, while respected, the former trainer of France's national military team was little liked by the French press. It was Lemerre's rigid, army-inherited management style that likely contributed to his eventual downfall.
At the World Cup, he refused to change his long- established game plan even though key players were sidelined by injury. Zinedine Zidane, France's midfield anchor, missed the first two matches because of a thigh strain, and a knee injury ruled out star winger Robert Pires for the whole tournament.
Without Zidane and Pires, the French team put on a lacklustre show and was stunned 1-0 by newcomer Senegal in the World Cup opener. A scoreless draw against Uruguay followed, leaving France on the brink of elimination.
Zidane returned for France's must-win game against Denmark, but the soccer superstar was barely match- ready and Les Bleus crumbled to a 2-0 defeat.
Many expected Lemerre to resign when the French team returned from Asia. But the FFF gave him three weeks to reflect on his future. Then, when it became clear he was refusing to go, it pushed him out.
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
