‘We are not afraid of sack’

28.01.2008

Coach Reinhard Fabish has said
that he is not afraid of being fired after the Nations Cup in Ghana as a result of the performance of the Squirrels of Benin Republic.

“I am not afraid of losing my job. If you are afraid of losing your job successively, then you must not become a football coach. “I have a two-year contract and my employers have the right to determine what they want but I am not afraid to lose my job.

“What I fear most is plane crashes but not dismissal for the poor performance of a team,” Fabish said after his team’s 1-4 loss to the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire. Meanwhile, Coach Berti Vogts of Nigeria in another interview after their drawn game with Mali said the frequent dismissal of coaches after any poor performance in a football tournament was rather worsening the plight of the teams instead of the coaches.

He said coaches should not be held solely responsible for any abysmal performance but rather, the entire team should be motivated to play effectively well in subsequent games. Coach Vogts said he had a contract that expires in 2010 and until then he was still at post.

Pfister praises team

CameroUn coach, Otto Pfister has praised the mental attitude of his players following the 5-1 defeat of Zambia. The Indomitable Lions recovered from a surprise 2-4 loss to Egypt in their opening Group C game to keep their hopes alive at the tournament.

“In football you have all this pressure, but my team is mentally very strong, and we were very confident. “We accepted the defeat, prepared well and we dominated the game tactically.” He added: “It was not easy because we went into the game on the back of a defeat.” Cameroun’s comfortable victory was made all the easier by Zambia’s poor defending.

Chipolopolo striker James Chamanga said that errors would have to be corrected ahead of his team’s final group game against Egypt. “It was a bad day for us. We were let down very much by the defence. “You can’t allow those kind of mistakes at this level - you get punished like that.
“We have to work on that now and we have to play coordinated football up front.

“The fight isn’t over, we have to stay positive, that’s the most important thing,” he said.