"Angers SCO thanks Abdel Bouhazama for his investment and involvement over the last 10 years with the club and wishes him the best for the rest of his career," the club added in a statement announcing "the end of their contractual relations".
Arrived in Angers 10 years ago, Bouhazama, 54, was long in charge of the training center and the reserve team before taking over at the head of the first team when Gérald Baticle was sacked at the end of November.
First appointed on an interim basis and then confirmed in his position, he has not been able to slow down the infernal spiral of a club that already has 23 defeats in 31 league matches and whose relegation to Ligue 2 could be official as soon as the next day, when it hosts Paris SG on Friday.
And his low credit evaporated in early March when he sought during a pre-game chat to encourage a player prosecuted for sexual assault by downplaying the facts, shocking his locker room and far beyond.
The disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP) sanctioned him with a one-month suspension for these remarks. A symbolic measure since he had been discharged from his position as coach in the wake of their revelation in the press, while remaining an employee of the club.
Long known as a solid club, far from glitter and scandals, Angers is experiencing a catastrophic sporting season, now under the leadership of Alexandre Dujeux, former assistant of Baticle and Bouhazama.
And for more than three years, the SCO has been collecting extra-sporting setbacks, between recourse to the prud'hommes of former players or employees and prosecution against its president and owner, Saïd Chabane, for aggravated sexual assault and more recently for money laundering in organized gang. At the end of March, Saïd Chabane left the presidency of the club and gave way to his son Romain.
© 2023 AFP