International Football
Salah among absentees as African qualifying series for World Cup resumes
Africa’s second round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup is set to kick off with some notable absentees – Mohamed Salah, among them – after the refusal of British clubs to release players for various matches.
Premier League clubs have led the way in refusing permission for players to head to countries on the British government’s Covid red list, which would require 10 days of quarantine upon their return.
With Egypt one of 17 African countries on the red list, Liverpool superstar Salah will miss this week’s home match against Angola in Cairo but could play in Gabon, which is not on the list, next week.
Quarantine conditions meant he could have been one of several internationals to miss multiple games, said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
“As clubs we cannot do that – not only because we play games in that time, but because without being positive (for coronavirus) they lose 10 days of training,” he said.
“Without any chance of moving, you lose muscle. It’s a real risk for the boys if they have to then play three, four or five days after 10 days in quarantine.”
Since they are playing in countries not on the red list, Salah’s club colleagues Sadio Mane and Naby Keita can represent Senegal and Guinea respectively in both this window’s matches, which begin on Wednesday and end on Tuesday.
The Liverpool cases highlight the additional selection problems facing coaches as the 40 teams, split into ten groups of four, battle to reach March’s play-offs.
Only the ten group winners will make the two-legged play-offs, whereupon Africa’s five finalists for Qatar 2022 will be known.
This brings added intrigue to Group D, where Cameroon’s 2017 African champions take on Ivory Coast’s 2015 winners in a battle of sides who have ten World Cup appearances between them.
This is one of four groups featuring more than one team with World Cup experience, along with Group F (Egypt, Angola), Group G (South Africa, Ghana) and Group H (Senegal, Togo).
With the strengths of teams likely to be influenced by Covid complications for some time, the campaign has the capacity to throw up some surprise results.
An example of the challenges can be seen by the problems facing Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr, who named an expanded 30-man squad to cater for players not allowed to leave the United Kingdom.
While the Super Eagles will be at full strength at home to Liberia later this week, they are set to miss eight players based in the United Kingdom – with Leicester duo Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi – for the trip that follows to Cape Verde, which is on the red list.
Cote d’Ivoire coach Patrice Beaumelle has already lost patience with a process which both the Confederation of African Football and Fifa tried to overturn in vain appeals to the British government.
The 2015 African champions host Cameroon, who took their throne in 2017, in a mouth-watering Group D clash whereupon they can use Premier League duo Eric Bailly and Serge Aurier – but both cannot play in red-listed Mozambique in the Elephants’ first game.
“I’m tired of the whole affair and I think it’s uncalled for because everything is well organised these days with regular testing, safe travel and closed stadiums to minimise risk,” Ivory Coast coach Patrice Beaumelle told Reuters.
“We’ve been under continual pressure from clubs not to select their players. In March, it was the French clubs who refused and now it’s the English.”
While many coaches have to work out new line-ups in the face of such problems, others have to navigate a way through some regional derbies, with South Africa facing Zimbabwe (Group G) while Malawi meet Mozambique (Group D).
Coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredrejovic takes on Kenya in Group E as he faces his first competitive match since rejoining the Cranes, who he led to a first Africa Cup of Nations finals in four decades in 2017, in early August.
“We are expecting good match of football friends that will be opponents for 90 minutes but after 90 minutes, we shall be east African brothers,” he said.
“There is too much at stake and it is very hard to play against friends that you know. This is a test of character for a team in transition, and it will be a very tough match that will show us where we are at present.”
All 40 teams, including African champions Algeria, will hope to improve on Africa’s poor 2018 World Cup, when not one of Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal or Tunisia reach the second round.
This meant there was no African team in the next stage for the first time since 1982.
-BBC
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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