adminBUENOS AIRES. – Argentina’s football association fired Edgardo Bauza as coach of the crisis-hit national team as it struggles to qualify for next year’s World Cup, the head of the body said on Monday.
It was the first big move by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) since it last month picked new executives tasked with ending three years of turmoil in the Argentine game.
“We have reached a verbal agreement. We have told Edgardo Bauza that he is no longer the coach of Argentina,” the AFA’s new president Claudio Tapia told reporters after meeting with Bauza at the association’s headquarters.
He did not say who Bauza’s replacement would be, but said more details would be given at a news conference scheduled for late last night.
The world number two-ranked football nation risks failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1970. Star striker Lionel Messi is to miss the country’s three remaining qualifying matches due to suspension.
After a defeat to Bolivia last month, Argentina dropped to fifth place in the regional table – out of the top-four automatic qualifying positions.
FIFA hit Messi with a four-match ban last month for swearing at an assistant referee in a game against Chile. Bauza vowed after the Bolivia defeat that his squad had the strength to fight on.
But Argentina have won only one of eight World Cup 2018 qualifiers played without Barcelona superstar Messi, compared to five out of six won with him on the pitch.
“The national team is playing badly and everyone knows it,” Tapia said last week. Argentina’s World Cup hero Diego Maradona said he was ready to lead an appeal to FIFA against Messi’s ban. But it is rare for the sport’s governing world body to repeal a suspension.
Messi threatened to quit the national team last year after they lost on penalties to Chile in the Copa America Centenario final. – AFP.
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