World Football

Troubled France coach says not worried by own fate

13:50 BST, Fri 10 Oct 2008
[-] Text [+]
 Email  |   Print  |   Digg This
 
France team coach Raymond Domenech sits on a soccer ball as he attends a training session at their training camp in Clairefontaine, near Paris, October 7, 2008. The France team will face Romania on Saturday for the World Cup 2010 qualifying soccer match. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier (FRANCE)

By Bertrand Boucey

CLAIREFONTAINE, France, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Under-fire France coach Raymond Domenech said he was not worried by his own fate before a World Cup qualifier in Romania on Saturday that could spell the end of his tenure. "The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that we need to qualify for the 2010 World Cup," Domenech told reporters at the team's base outside Paris on Friday.

"I've said so before and I'll keep saying it -- qualifying does not depend on one match alone and there will be more matches after this one," he added.

Domenech, who was left in charge but told he needed results after his team's group-stage exit from Euro 2008, knows a bad outcome in the Group Seven match (1840 GMT) in the Black Sea port of Constanta might cost him his job.

The 56-year-old, whose team began their qualifying campaign with a shock 3-1 defeat by Austria, earned himself a stay of execution with a 2-1 win over Serbia last month.

He realises, however, that he is not safe yet, after French federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes said an assessment of the coach's position would be made after the Romania match.

The abrasive coach received support from captain Patrick Vieira, who has not played for France for months because of a thigh injury but should lead the team on Saturday.

"Since he's been left in charge, players and officials must support him, full stop," midfielder Vieira told reporters on Friday. "He has to stay on until the end, he has to be allowed to keep doing his job."

France will play Tunisia in a friendly in Paris on Tuesday and the French federation will meet the next day with the coach's case on the agenda.

French media have started speculating on who might replace Domenech, with 1998 world champions Didier Deschamps and Laurent Blanc the favourites.

Any person accessing the football section of this website is prohibited from any unauthorised re-production of any photographs and or text content other than for the purposes of viewing the same as part of the web site.   

Most Popular articles

advertisement