Argentina sack coach Bauza
Buenos Aires, April 11: Argentina’s football association fired Edgardo Bauza as coach of the crisis-hit national team as it struggles to qualify for next year’s World Cup, the head of the body said Monday.
It was the first big move by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) since it last month picked new executives tasked with ending three years of turmoil in the Argentine game.
AFA’s new president Claudio Tapia did not say who Bauza’s replacement would be, but said more details would be given at a news conference on Wednesday.
The world number tworanked football nation risks failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1970.
Star striker Lionel Messi is to miss the country’s three remaining qualifying matches due to suspension.
After a defeat to Bolivia last month, Argentina dropped to fifth place in the regional table — out of the top-four automatic qualifying positions.
FIFA hit Messi with a four-match ban last month for swearing at an assistant referee in a game against Chile.
Bauza vowed after the Bolivia defeat that his squad had the strength to fight on.
But Argentina have won only one of eight World Cup 2018 qualifiers played without Barcelona superstar Messi, compared to five out of six won with him on the pitch.
“The national team is playing badly and everyone knows it,” Tapia said last week.
Various other possible replacements such as Mauricio Pochettino of Tottenham Hotspur and Diego Simeone of Atletico Madrid reportedly turned down the job.
Tapia acknowledged last week that firing Bauza would be problematic given the association’s financial difficulties, though on Monday he appeared to have found a solution.