Tunisia Sack National Team Coach After AFCON Exit

Tunisia Football Federation (TFF) has confirmed that Monher Kebaier, the head coach of the country’s national team, was sacked, yesterday, Sunday, 30th, January 2022, after the team’s elimination from the ongoing African Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Tunisia Football Federation. Kebaier was sacked barely two months away from the two-legged Qatar FIFA 2022 World Cup playoffs. The 51-year-old coach took charge of the team in August 2019. He has been replaced by his deputy, Jalel Kadri.

“It was decided to end the contractual relationship with Mondher Kebaier and to appoint Jalal Al-Qadri as his successor. We thank Mondher Kebaier for the effort he made during the period he spent at the helm of the national team, wishing him success in the rest of his coaching career,’’ the statement reads.

Tunisia lost two of their group matches in Cameroon but managed to qualify for the knock-out phase as one of the four best looser in the group stage. In a surprising result, the Tunisian national team managed to qualify for the quarter-finals of AFCON after defeating the Super Eagles of Nigeria. 11 members of the team, including the head coach, contracted COVID 19 and the new head coach, who was the assistant coach at the tournament, sat on the bench in the encounter.

Tunisia won the AFCON on home soil in 2004 and also made it to the semi-finals of the last edition in Egypt. Before he was appointed the team’s coach in 2019, Kebaier had coached football clubs like Esperance, Etoile du Sahel, CA Bizertin, and Club African, all in Tunisia.

Kebaier is not the first coach to suffer the same fate after exit from the AFCON, Black Stars of Ghana head coach, Milovan Rajevac, was also sacked after Ghana crashed out of the tournament at the group stage.

Source

All Africa News