Kuwait fire coach Jozak after home defeat to Australia

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait have sacked head coach Romeo Jozak just a year after his appointment following the team’s 3-0 home defeat to Australia in World Cup qualifying.

Croatian Jozak, 46, took over the reins of Kuwait’s national team in July last year, three months after being sacked by Polish club Legia Warsaw.

“The FA decided to consider the recommendations of the technical committee which advised to part ways with the technical staff of the national team,” Kuwait’s football association said in a statement.

Tuesday’s loss to the Socceroos came days after World No 156 Kuwait hammered Nepal 7-0 to open their qualifying campaign for Qatar 2022 and the Asian Cup in China in 2023.

“Congratulations to my ‘Blue’ boys! Strong opener of the Qualifiers and a message to the World that Kuwait are back on the international football scene,” the coach had tweeted after the home win against Nepal.

Kuwait still top Group B with one win from two matches and play Jordan next in Amman on Oct 10.

The eight group winners and four best runnersup advance to the third round of qualification.

Meanwhile, two weeks after former South American football official Juan Angel Napout was sentenced to nine years in prison by a US court for corruption, he was banned for life on Thursday by Fifa.

Napout, at one time the head of both the Paraguayan and the South American(Conmebol) football federations and a Fifa vice president, was found guilty by a New York court in April.

On August 29, he received the longest sentence of any of the 42 accused in the ‘Fifagate’ case.

The Fifa Ethics Commission followed suit on Thursday, saying they had found Napout guilty of “corruption.” They suspended him for life from “any footballrelated activity.”