Should Amrouche stay or go?
Once again the Zebras senior national team has failed to qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for Cameroon next year. The Zebras ungracefully bowed out of the qualifiers on Monday after suffering two successive defeats in the hands of Zimbabwe and Algeria respectively to finish bottom of the group H of the qualifiers. As much as the group was wide open and Botswana standing to qualify, now focus turns to coach Adel Amrouche with regards to his future with the team since he failed to achieve the deliverables which were set for him when he ascended to the seat.
Having appointed to the head coach position in August 2019 for a period of three years, chief amongst the deliverables which were set for the Belgian was to guide the team to the 2021 AFCON finals , something which he failed to achieve. In addition Amrouche was to build a solid team and improve on the FIFA rankings, win COSAFA Cup, finish on the later stages of Qatar 2022 World cup qualifiers . Though his contract is still running , it is quite clear that the Belgian failed the tasks which were set for him therefore it is unlikely that he will stay beyond the elapse of his contract. As much as the disastrous AFCON qualification campaign can be attributed to poor preparations and absence of football at local level, the Belgian coach had a horrible stay with the Zebras.
Most importantly there hasn’t been any significant improvement from the team’s performance ever since Amrouche took over the reign from Major David Bright.
However according to Botswana Football Association( BFA) acting Chief executive officer Thabiso Kebotsamang, they are yet to deliberate on the coach’s future. “Coach still has a running contract with us and we have to respect that. Performance reviews are done and still going on, so after the conclusion of that that’s when we can see the way forward or establish if we are happy or not with Amrouche’s overall performances,” he said.
From his first days at the helm of the team, the Zebras were prematurely dumped out of the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers by Malawi and now having failed to qualify for AFCON means the team will lie idle while other countries are busy with qualifiers and subsequently World Cup and AFCON tournaments next year. From the ten games Amrouche has been in charge of the team , he has managed to register only one victory, three draws and six losses in AFCON, World qualifiers and two friendly games . In the process The Zebras conceded 11 goals while managing to score only two goals over the ten games.
According to football analyst City Keagakwa, it’s unlikely that Amrouche will stay beyond his three years contract as evidenced by his poor performances with the team. He further said the BFA should also establish if they are doing enough to support the national team in its endeavors since it cannot be only the coach who takes responsibility of dismal performances.“There were mandates which were put before the coach, of which he has all failed to achieve. I acknowledge that Covid- 19 did affect his plans but still we judge him as the coach who failed to lead
Coach still has a running contract with us and we have to respect that. Performance reviews are done and still going on, so after the conclusion of that that’s when we can see the way forward or establish if we are happy or not with Amrouche’s overall performances
us to AFCON. I don’t know what the coach is trying to achieve because both players and the technical team have been changed many times but still results were bad. Also we need to cut our costs since there is no money because the coach is reportedly earning a huge salary . There I need to go to the drawing board and rebuild because we have ready- made replacements who can lead the team . It also goes to the BFA on what they want to achieve because in recent times we have seen local football regressing so they have an important decision to make . But he is not the only problem at the association but he is one of the main situations to be dealt with before we start our next cycle of competitions,” opined Keagakwa