Gilbert Wandera
National team coaches are always the first casualties when their teams fail to qualify for either the Africa Cup of Nations or World Cup finals.
And it is no different this time as the Africa Cup of Nations finals and World Cup comes up this year.
Tunisia will have a new coach going into this month’s Nations Cup finals after the sacking of Umberto Coelho.
Coelho was shown the door after failing to guide the Carthage Eagles to a World Cup appearance from group two of the qualifiers.
Tunisia were always firm favourites to pick the sole ticket to next year’s World Cup from their group as they took pole position from the opening matches in the group.
But the Catharge Eagles fell at the last hurdle going down by a solitary goal to Mozambique in Maputo a result which shattered their World Cup dreams as Nigeria who beat Kenya 3-2 in Nairobi sneaked through.
Tunisia have appointed Esperance coach Faouzi Benzarti to lead the team to the Nations Cup finals.
Closer home Rwanda’s head coach Branko Tucak was sacked after leading the country in a disastrous campaign for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Amavubi’s campaign ended after they failed to beat Zambia’s Chipolopolo by a 2-0 margin in the last qualifier played at Amahoro.
Back home
The game ended in a barren draw which meant Rwanda missed a ticket to Angola. The Football Association (Ferwafa)’s executive board voted to end the coach’s term after holding an emergency meeting.
Branko joined Amavubi last April after replacing fellow countryman Josip Kuze, who had moved to Japanese side JEF United Chiba.
He signed a two-year contract with an immediate task of guiding Amavubi to the Nations Cup.
Back home, German Antoine Hey took off when his efforts to send the team to the Africa Cup of Nations finals back-fired.
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Hey, who has a poor track record in Africa took over Harambee Stars in March when the team had qualified for the second round of the World Cup/Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
He took over when optimism was high among local football fans that the team would make it to South Africa for the World Cup qualifiers.
But when Kenya lost their first match 2-1 to Tunisia, hope began to fade. Another 3-0 loss to Nigeria led to despair. Hope was revived following a 2-1 laboured win over Mozambique in Nairobi but a 1-0 loss to the Black Mambas in the return leg meant Stars were going to struggle to book a ticket to Angola.
This was confirmed by another 1-0 loss in Tunis and by this time football fans and the football administration had had enough of the German.
Hey’s tactics and decision to drop key players is what put him at logger heads with his employers Football Kenya.
In the end he was forced to recall AJ Auxerre striker Dennis Oliech, Mathare United defender Edgar Ochieng’ and midfielder Jamal Mohammed.
But Hey refused to train the team if the players were allowed in camp and he sensationally took off to Germany two days before the last qualification match against Nigeria which Stars lost 3-2 and hence missing the plane to Angola.