AFCON
JOURNEY MAN, CLAUDE LE ROY LEAVES TOGO
Easily the most travelled foreign coach in Africa, French man, Claude Le Roy is leaving his current team, the Togo national football team which he has been handling in the past five years.
In a little over 30 years since venturing into the continent as a coach of Cameroon in 1985, Le Roy has at different times handled Senegal, DR Congo, Ghana, Congo and Togo.
In 2014 at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, he told Sports Village Square of his obsession for African football.
Pointing at a necklace he had which depicts an outline map of Africa, he remarked that he was an African in spirit.
The French veteran coach has decided to leave his job on Monday (12 April 2021), after seeing Togo failing to qualify for Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021, that kicks off next January.
Le Roy (73) started his Togo job in April 2016 and led Emmanuel Adebayor led Hawks to the 2017 AFCON in Gabon.
But since then, Togo failed to reach the next two AFCON editions. “In football, there is only one thing that matters in the end and that is the results. And after a while, you have to draw the lines,” he said.
After Le Roy announcement, Togolese Football Federation (FTF) accepted his decision on mutual consent.
“After missing on qualification to the AFCON, Cameroon 2021, Togo National Coach Claude Le Roy decided to resign from his post following a meeting with Minister of Sports and Leisure Dr. Bessi Lidi-Kama.”
In 35 matches in all competitions at the head of Togo, Le Roy guided the Hawks for 9 wins, 12 draws and 14 losses.
Togo will be looking for a new manager before the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers start in June. The Hawks are in group H with Senegal, Congo and Namibia.
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The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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