Paris (AFP)
The former coach of the French handball team Didier Dinart kept "a feeling of unfinished business, brutal eviction, and above all without explanation", five months after his dismissal at the end of January following the failure to 'Euro, he said Thursday in an interview with L'Equipe.
"You receive a call from your assistant (Guillaume Gille, who was going to succeed him, editor) who explains that you have to cut your head to create an electric shock. It was a real cold shower, three seconds of stupor", says the former defense boss, recalling that the day before, technical director Philippe Bana had stated on television that he was "not in danger".
The Blues had just suffered an unprecedented fiasco at the Euro in Norway, an elimination in the first round, after notably a defeat against Portugal.
After first reassuring statements, the federation had decided to disembark it and instruct Guillaume Gille to prepare the Olympic qualification tournament (postponed because of the coronavirus). He had been a head coach for only three and a half years while his two predecessors, Daniel Costantini and Claude Onesta, had remained in office for more than 15 years each.
Regarding the attitude of Guillaume Gille, Didier Dinart believes that "he could have been more united". "I would not have been able to take the place of a head coach in this way," he said. However, he refuses to criticize the players, even if he recognizes "differences" with Nikola Karabatic and Luc Abalo in particular.
The former coach, who had not expressed himself publicly since the Euro, defends his "positive balance" of "four medals in five competitions", including gold at the 2017 World Cup, underlines the "major renewal" that he has operated in the workforce since 2015 and regrets that he was not allowed to "build the identity of his staff" upon his arrival.
In the future election to the presidency of the Federation, Didier Dinart supports his former teammate Olivier Girault with whom he "shares certain values", notably against DTN Philippe Bana, who he criticizes for having "lacked courage to announce him the eyes in the eyes "his eviction.
© 2020 AFP