Ligue 1: Angers coach Abdel Bouhazama resigns after inappropriate remarks

Europe 1 with AFP 4:53 p.m., March 7, 2023

The French club of Angers, last in Ligue 1, announced Tuesday the resignation of its coach Abdel Bouhazama, weakened by his sporting failure and undermined by his inappropriate comments in support of a player prosecuted for touching.

"Faced with media pressure and to preserve the club's image and the serenity of the locker room, Abdel Bouhazama announced to President Saïd Chabane that he had decided to leave his post," the club announced in a press release.

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No details were given immediately on his succession, while the red lantern team of Ligue 1, which has not won since September and has just been swept 5-0 in Montpellier, receives Toulouse on Sunday.

Shocking remarks made in a pre-match chat

The coach, already criticized for his failure to turn the team around, was in the hot seat after remarks made during the pre-match chat on Sunday to boost the confidence of his defender Ilyes Chetti were revealed.

Abdel Bouhazama had established him, for only the third time this season, while the local press had revealed during the week that this player had recognized touching a young woman during an evening in a nightclub and that he would be tried in April.

"It's not bad, we've all already touched girls," said the coach according to several sources quoted by the daily newspapers

and

and confirmed by an AFP correspondent.

"A Ligue 1 coach cannot express himself like this"

"Angers SCO unreservedly condemns the words spoken during the talk, even if they seem (more) to be clumsy than the intention to trivialize sexist speech", argued the club in its press release, assuring that Bouhazama had apologized "to his colleagues, especially women".

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But his words shocked in the locker room and far beyond.

On Tuesday morning, Angers Town Hall Sports Deputy Charles Diers, a former club player, commented: "A Ligue 1 coach cannot speak like that. An educator cannot talk like that. A man should not say such things".

The remarks made all the more react as President Chabane has himself been prosecuted since 2020 for aggravated sexual assault after the accusations of six women who were his employees at the time of the facts.