Sports News | Ivory Coast Fires Jean-Louis Gasset as Coach Despite Team''s Chance to Reach Africa Cup Pre-quarters
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Ivory Coast coach Jean-Louis Gasset has been fired despite the team still having a chance of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations knockout stage.
Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Jan 25 (AP) Ivory Coast coach Jean-Louis Gasset has been fired despite the team still having a chance of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations knockout stage.
The Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) said Wednesday that it was terminating the contracts of the French coach and his assistant “for insufficient results in accordance to the contract of objectives they had with the FIF.”
Former Ivory Coast midfielder Emerse Faé was to take charge of the team on an interim basis.
Ivory Coast is hosting the Africa Cup but failed to secure automatic qualification to the tournament's knockout stage when it was beaten 4-0 by Equatorial Guinea in its final group game on Monday.
It left the Elephants with just three points from three group games and reliant on results in other groups to finish among the best four third-place finishers for a place in the pre-quarterfinals.
Equatorial Guinea finished top of Group A with seven points, ahead of Nigeria on goal difference.
Wednesday's final group games in Groups E and F were to determine whether the host nation could squeeze into the knockout stage.
Gasset reportedly tendered his resignation to the president of the FIF, Yacine Idriss Diallo, right after the loss to Equatorial Guinea.
The defeat prompted some irate Ivorian fans to vandalize commuter buses outside the stadium. (AP)
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