{"id":1175736,"date":"2022-08-12T15:27:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T15:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/12\/morocco-sack-head-coach-vahid-halilhodzic-three-months-to-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2022-08-12T15:27:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T15:27:47","slug":"morocco-sack-head-coach-vahid-halilhodzic-three-months-to-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/12\/morocco-sack-head-coach-vahid-halilhodzic-three-months-to-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Morocco sack head coach Vahid Halilhod\u017ei\u0107 three months to World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image_2022-08-12_070804320-696x392.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Vahid Halilhodzic has helped Ivory Coast, Japan and Morocco qualify for the World Cup - but lost all three coaching roles before the respective tournaments began\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vahid Halilhodzic has helped Ivory Coast, Japan and Morocco qualify for the World Cup &#8211; but lost all three coaching roles before the respective tournaments began\/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Morocco have parted company with national team coach Vahid Halilhodzic just three months before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s football federation (FRMF) said the decision was taken because of disagreements on how to prepare the Atlas Lions for the finals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe two parties have agreed to part ways amicably,\u201d a statement from the FRMF said.<\/p>\n<p>Halilhodzic, 69, took charge of the North Africans in August 2019.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>He led the side to the quarter-finals of this year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon and then secured World Cup qualification in March following a 5-2 aggregate win over DR Congo.<\/p>\n<p>The Bosnian\u2019s departure clears the path for the return of Chelsea winger Hakim Ziyech to the Morocco squad, following a highly publicised spat involving the pair.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old\u00a0quit international football in February\u00a0and then turned down a call-up for March\u2019s World Cup play-off against DR Congo \u2013 but FMRF president Fouzi Lekjaa subsequently said\u00a0the door was open for Ziyech to return.<\/p>\n<p>Speculations about the future of the Halilhodzic had been rife in the local media after Lekjaa announced that Ziyech would be a part of the World Cup squad.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco will face 2018 runners-up Croatia, Belgium and Canada in Group F at the World Cup finals in Qatar.<\/p>\n<h3>A third pre-World Cup exit<\/h3>\n<p>Halilhodzic\u2019s departure from the Morocco job marks the third time he has been fired by a country he helped qualify for the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Ivory Coast and Japan both reached for the global showpiece under his charge \u2013 but he lost both jobs before the respective tournaments took place.<\/p>\n<p>His dismissal by the Ivorians came after the Elephants fared poorly at the Nations Cup some six months before the 2010 World Cup, and he was replaced by Sven-Goran Eriksson.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese Football Association, meanwhile, cited \u201ccommunication\u201d problems and claimed Halilhodzic had lost the trust of his players when he was sacked two months before the 2018 tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Former Nantes, Lille and Paris St-Germain manager Halilhodzic coached Algeria to the last 16 at the 2014 tournament in Brazil, where the North Africans\u00a0lost 2-1 after extra time\u00a0to eventual champions Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco will now seek to appoint a successor, with former international Walid Regragui, who led\u00a0Wydad Casablanca to the African Champions League crown\u00a0in May, among the candidates for the job.<\/p>\n<h3>Supporters \u2018were not satisfied\u2019<\/h3>\n<p><em>Analysis by Jalal Bounouar, Moroccan football journalist<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It was a question of time. In Morocco, we all knew there was a big difference between the vision of Vahid Halilhodzic and that of the Moroccan football federation.<\/p>\n<p>They wanted him to have good relations with all their players, including Hakim Ziyech and Noussair Mazraoui, who has recently joined Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<p>Halilhodzic was stubborn and refused to call them up. This was against the wishes of Moroccan fans.<\/p>\n<p>Despite qualifying for the World Cup, fans were not satisfied with performances and the general atmosphere inside the national team.<\/p>\n<p>When Wydad Casablanca won the Champions League, we knew Walid Regragui was the man to replace Halilhodzic.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"tA0Ir8hulPI\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dunkwa-Ayanfuri Road: Persus Mining begins work on deplorable road after residents\u2019 demo (12-8-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tA0Ir8hulPI?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vahid Halilhodzic has helped Ivory Coast, Japan and Morocco qualify for the World Cup &#8211; but lost all three coaching roles before the respective tournaments began\/ Getty Images Morocco have parted company with national team coach Vahid Halilhodzic just three months before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The country\u2019s football federation (FRMF) said the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1175738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1763,262,14750,1705,1010,394,23193,784],"class_list":["post-1175736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-coach","tag-cup","tag-halilhodzic","tag-months","tag-morocco","tag-sack","tag-vahid","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}