Senegal have fired coach Amara Traore following the team�s woeful display at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Highly-fancied before the tournament began, the Senegalese lost every game at the finals � including a shock defeat to co-hosts Equatorial Guinea.
�It was a failure and it is the coach�s responsibility,� said Augustin Senghor, Senegal�s Football Federation chief. Decisions had to be taken and the executive committee has decided to end its collaboration with the coach.�
The Senegalese federation (FSF), following a meeting in Dakar on Tuesday, announced that Traore�s back-up staff have also been dismissed.
Traore had insisted he would not resign, having achieved his initial goal of qualifying for the Nations Cup, even if he spectacularly failed to reach his semi-final target.
Olympic coaches Karim Sega Diouf and Aliou Cisse have been asked to take interim control as the Teranga Lions prepare to face South Africa in a Durban friendly on 29 February.
It is unclear whether new coaches will be in place by June, when the West Africans� qualifying campaign for both the 2014 World Cup and 2013 Nations Cup get under way.
Meanwhile, Senegal will want to hire French coach Herve Renard, who has guided Zambia to a surprise Africa Cup of Nations semi-final, to replace Amara Traore, who lost all three games in Equatorial Guinea.
However, top sources close to the Senegal football federation informed MTNFootball.com that the fiery Frenchman is now very much in their radar ahead of the qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup beginning in June.
Renard�s tactics for Zambia finished off star-studded Senegal in their opening Group A match of the Nations Cup as they romped in style to the last four for the first time in 16 years.
At the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola he guided Chipolopolo to the last eight and was thereafter courted by 2010 World Cup-bound Nigeria but eventually ended up with Angola.
However, his stay in Angola was only for a handful of months before he headed to club football in Algeria.
�He was earning five, six times what Zambia were paying him, but while no one interfered with his job in Zambia, in Angola they tried to pick the team for him. That was why he left in frustration,� a top FAZ official informed MTNFootball.comANTH
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