Morocco: coach Vahid Halilhodzic still more challenged before the 2022 World Cup

Vahid Halilhodzic, coach of Morocco, during a friendly match against the United States in Cincinnati, June 1, 2022. AP - Jeff Dean

Text by: Nicolas Bamba Follow

3 mins

Five months before the World Cup in Qatar, Vahid Halilhodzic is in an uncomfortable situation at the head of the Atlas Lions.

The coach is the target of criticism, fans whistle him, several players are in conflict with him and rumors of an upcoming departure persist, while Morocco has just started the CAN 2023 qualifiers and will challenge Liberia, Monday, June 13.

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Quarter-finalists of the last African Cup of Nations in Cameroon (beaten by Egypt, future finalist), qualified for the

, the players of the Morocco team should be in a positive phase in this late spring.

Even the qualifications for

started rather well in group K with a victory, admittedly sluggish, on the

.

However, before facing Liberia as part of the second day, Monday, June 13, the national team is under tension.

More precisely, it is the coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, who crystallizes all the tensions.

It has now been several months since the Bosnian has been decried in Morocco on the background of fractures with certain players of the national team, for the most part dismissed (Hakim Ziyech, Noussair Mazraoui, Nordin Amrabat...).

At the beginning of May, the Moroccan Football Federation had to

.

A month later, the time is still not for appeasement.

Whistled by Moroccan supporters

Thursday, June 9, at the Prince Moulay-Abdallah stadium in Rabat, Vahid Halilhodzic was able to realize his unpopularity with some Moroccan supporters.

Before the kickoff of the match against Bafana Bafana, his name was whistled by the public.

Unless there is a surprise, the coach risks being greeted with the same coldness on Monday for the match against Liberia in Casablanca.

Barring a huge improbable rebound, he will be present on the bench to lead the Atlas Lions.

But in the Moroccan press, rumors are circulating about a dismissal of "Coach Vahid" after this Liberia-Morocco.

In question: these relations described as difficult between the former striker and his players, his staff and his hierarchy.

The grievances heard are not new.

Already, when he was at the head of Paris Saint-Germain for a year and a half, between 2003 and 2005, Vahid Halilhodzic experienced problems with several managerial players, some of whom preferred to leave with a bang (like Fabrice Fiorèse, who joined OM by castigating the authoritarianism of the coach), and ultimately with the supporters.

The same recriminations resurfaced elsewhere.

Already dismissed twice a few weeks before a World Cup

If he were to be thanked, Vahid Halilhodzic, 70, would taste for the third time the bitter taste of an eviction before a World Cup.

In March 2010, he was sacked from his position as coach of Côte d'Ivoire in the wake of the CAN, three months before the World Cup in South Africa.

Furious, the Bosnian had turned on the leaders of the Ivorian Football Federation, who had justified their decision by the elimination in the quarter-finals of the CAN: " 

 »

Eight years later, “Coach Vahid” was fired from his post as Japan coach just two months before the World Cup in Russia.

The Japan Football Federation believed he was no longer able to lead the Blue Samurai due to " 

 " with the players.

Vahid Halilhodzic's fate is not yet sealed.

But five months before the meeting in Qatar, serenity still does not float in the Moroccan house.

The result and content of the Liberia-Morocco match will be analyzed with great attention, pending further decisions and statements.

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