Morocco fire coach three months before World Cup kick- off

CASABLANCA: Morocco has fired its football coach Vahid Halilhodzic just three months before the country competes in the World Cup finals in Qatar.

The announcement by the Moroccan football federation on Thursday ends months of speculation over the fate of the Franco-Bosnian coach, who has now suffered the extraordinary feat of being fired three times by national teams after they qualified for World Cup finals.

“Given the differences and divergent visions between the Royal Moroccan Football Federation and national coach Vahid Halilhodzic on the best way to prepare the national football team for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the two parties decided to separate,” the federation said in a statement.

Halilhodzic’s possible departure had been the cause of much speculation since a tepid showing at January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals and, in particular, his fall out with star midfielder Hakim Ziyech.

Halilhodzic was fired by Ivory Coast in 2010 and Japan in 2018 months before the World Cup. He did take Algeria to the 2014 tournament.