Journalism in the service of society

Mali sack coach over World Cup failure

MALI have fired coach Mohamed Magassouba after their failure to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, making him the second casualty this week after the completion of the qualifiers on Tuesday.

The 64-year-old coach, who has been in charge of his country’s national team since 2017, was dismissed with all of his staff, the Malian Federation said.

Mali were beaten 1-0 over two legs by Tunisia in their World Cup playoff this week, giving away a horror own goal in last Friday’s first leg in Bamako.

It was the closest Mali had come to a first-ever World Cup finals appearance, but Magassouba’s firing was expected after they were also eliminated in the round of 16 at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in January on post-match penalties by lowly Equatorial Guinea.

Nigeria on Friday fired their coach Augustine Eguavoen after they lost on the away goals rule to Ghana in their World Cup playoff.

Eguavoen had taken over from Gernot Rohr in December and left the position after three wins, two draws and one defeat, winning none of his last three matches.

Reuters

Comments are closed.

Naija Times