International Football
SAUDI ARABIA SACKS COACH, 9 DAYS TO WORLD CUP FINAL DRAW
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Nine days to his featuring in the 2018 World Cup Final Draw, Edgardo Bauza, the Argentine coach of Saudi Arabia has been fired. He becomes the first of the anticipated 32 head coached to next year’s World Cup to be fired.
His sack is coming barely 24 hours after another hitherto World Cup bound, Ange Postecoglou of Australia resigned. Before the Wednesday sacking of Bauza, there had been dark clouds surrounding his future.
Last week, Sports Village Square carried a report sourced from Radio Rivadavia, Rosario, the Argentine home town of Lionel Messi where the now sacked coach denied speculations that he had abandoned his job with Saudi Arabia.
“We are preparing the best possible for the World Cup,” he clarified claiming that he continued in office and will go for the draw for the World Cup on December 1.
“I’m still the coach of Saudi Arabia, on the 29th we go to Russia for the draw, we are preparing the best for the World Cup, Radio Rivadavia reported him to have said.
“The news that had been sent to me came out in Argentina, I think it was a journalistic move, many things were said, we are planning and putting together everything that is going to come,” he said.
Bauza who is a former technical director of the Argentine team said that Saudi Arabia had “minimal chances” in the World Cup because being in the fourth pot will make the team face two top-level teams and admitted that he would not like to face Argentina.
But the initial speculations about his future with Saudi Arabia have now been confirmed. He took over the saddle barely two month ago when he replaced the Dutchman, Bert van Marwijk.
His short tenure with the Saudis had been of mixed fortunes. He coached Saudi Arabia in five friendly matches. The team won two and lost three matches. The Saudi FA is apparent not satisfied with his input.
. The former coach, van Marwijk helped the Saudi team called Green Falcons qualify for Russia 2018, which will be their fifth FIFA World Cup and first since Germany 2006.
Saudi Arabia will be attempting to surpass their greatest performance at the world finals, which came at USA 1994 when they reached the Round of 16, only to lose to Sweden 3-1.
Sacking of coaches after qualification for World Cup is not particularly a strange happening. Nigeria had in the past, 1998, 2002 and 2010 sacked the coaches that qualified the Super Eagles to those years’ editions of the World Cup.
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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