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Coelho Appoints Mejri Assistant Coach Amid Doubts Surrounding Sioud’s Presidency

July 7th, 2008 | By: Rami | 39 Comments »

$I\'m Gone$ After watching a controversial cup final that’s still being talked about because of the refereeing decisions and the riots that occurred after it, our new coach, Humberto Coelho held his first meeting at FTF headquarters with his technical staff. It was there that Habib Mejri was officially announced as the assistant coach for the national team.

Skander Kasri, who was also vying for the job, was appointed as the coach of the A’ team which will act as the reserve squad from which they will pick promising players. These decisions don’t come as much of a surprise as they were leaked some time ago. The “bureau federal” will meet again next Monday to really “start working” as Coelho put it. Why not tomorrow though? We’re short on time dude!

Adjoint Some Bio on Habib Mejri: He was a defensive midfielder as a player and he played with CSHL and CA with some outings with the national team for a short period of time. He’s coached CSHL, AS Marsa, Stade Tunisien, and CSS. He’s known for being a disciplinarian. His time with ST and CSS was not very successful but he managed to save Marsa and Hammam Lif from relegation on more than one occasion. Most people aren’t totally convinced by this decision because he’s not a very good communicator but I think that’s ok because Coelho seems to be a great one.

Plus Coelho interviewed him and made the assessment that Mejri’s football concepts are the closest to his own and that they can work together. Unlike Lemerre, our new coach wants a real partner who will propose useful ideas instead of just being his lapdog. Mejri has a very important job though as he will have to be a link with the players that don’t speak very good French (in that sense he’s the same as Maaloul).

Now that that’s out of the way there’s a few other things that need to get taken care of:

- Is Tahar Sioud resigning or not? There’s been lots of rumors about him recently but now the news is getting printed in more places than one. It’s no secret that he’s done a terrible job after taking over from Hammouda Ben Ammar. He knows it too and apparently he’s starting to sense that it’s not just the fans that are upset with him. Who would/should take his place?

This is a complicated situation because the president has to be voted in and the next general assembly is in September. That’s still a while away and the person taking over would be Kamel Ben Amor. I don’t really know his credentials but I remember seeing him on Dimanche Sport once and he seemed kind of out of it. He was mumbling and repeating himself and not really making too much sense. Maybe he’s scared of TV cameras but those aren’t exactly the qualities you’re looking for…

The other names are former Etoile president, Othmane Jenayeh, and current Stade Tunisien President Mohamad Achab. No one doubts in Jenayeh’s resume or his knowledge of the game, the only thing working against him is that his history is very much intertwined with Etoile and people might worry that his love for them might cloud his judgment and make him less impartial. Hammdouba Ben Ammar was quoted as saying that Sioud should be given more time but that eventually Jenayeh has to take responsibility and help Tunisian football because he is the most qualified. Hard to argue with that assessment coming from one of the most successful FTF presidents we’ve ever had.

As for Achab, my initial reaction is that he wouldn’t be up to the task. His relationship with the media is tenuous and he’s an emotional character. Then again I’m a little biased because I desperately want him to liberate Amir Akrout and allow him to be transferred to Club Africain, something he seems to be avoiding at all costs.

August 20th friendly update: A few weeks ago the news came out that Cape Verdes, Angola, and Guinea had expressed interest in playing us on this date. Now the prospective opponents for Coelho’s first match have shifted to Togo or Ghana. I would have been fine with Angola or Guinea since both are strong teams but facing a team the caliber of Ghana could be beneficial in the warm up for the crucial qualifier against Burkina Faso on September 6th. Togo is superior to Burkina but they are closer to them in style than Ghana is. I honestly don’t care who it is from that list.

I just want to see the players Coelho calls up and in what capacity he deploys them onto the field. That will tell me a lot about the future. Finally, we had mentioned that an away fixture could be preferred but Radio Tunis says that it will be a home match. This could turn out to be a good decision if we perform well and win in front of our fans who are in dire need of a reason to start supporting the Carthage Eagles again. If we leave for Burkina on the back of a convincing performance and a positive result, our confidence will be sky high.

Any thoughts on these items? Is Habib Mejri a good choice? Who would you select as FTF President if you were king? And what team should we face on August 20th?

In Other News

Club Africain beat Al Hilal Soudani by the score of 2-1 in their gala match to celebrate the title. About 20,000 fans showed up to El Menzah despite the match starting around 8:00 PM (a little late by Tunisian football standards). The goals were scored by Junior (9th minute) and Maameri (71st minute) before Moussaoui brought one back for the Sudanese side two minutes before the end. Mosaique reported that new recruit Maameri was the revelation of the match and that the CA fans were very pleased with him. Looks to be a solid addition…

Moncef Sellami was voted in as the new CSS president. He replaces Slaheddine Zahaf who was widely blamed for making the decisions that lead to CSS falling all the way to 10th place in the Championship. It was not an acceptable final standing for a club with a storied history and Zahaf paid the price. The Sfaxien club is preparing for their trip to South Africa to face Platinum Stars (a team that gave Ahly some trouble before bowing out of the Champions League). They will be without the influential Fateh Gharbi, Hamza Bouzidi, Maaouia Kadri (suspensions and injuries).

Kasraoui resigned with Esperance for two years. His contract was up and there were offers from Turkey and France but he decided to stay. You can hear what he had to say about his decision here.

CAB brought in some reinforcements last week with the return of Zied Laaroussi and the arrival of Daou Bakare to help their offense. It’s not all good news though as the club that is known for having financial issues now has to deal with a complaint from former player Souheil Berradhia who says they still owe him two months pay and some rewards for winning important matches. Ibtassim innaha Tounes

Cameraphone Footage of Rades Riots

If you don’t wanna hear filthy language don’t watch this. Otherwise its just scenes of vandalism. It’s probably not the most accurate portrayal of everything that happened as the most violent stuff probably didn’t get filmed. Still messed up that it came to this though…

HRAM A CAUSE DU FOOT FI RADES - FINALE ESS EST
Uploaded by tunisienaletranger

Tags: CAB, Carthage Eagles, Club Africain, Group H, Habib Mejri, Humberto Coelho, Kasraoui, Skander Kasri, Tahar Sioud, Tunisian National Football Team

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 39 comments.

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By Rachid | July 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

Chaabani’s performance is very unstable, and I’ve noticed he plays well and pushes his teammates to play well only whe his back is against the wall. Two or three years ago in the CAF games, Esperance lost to Hilal Soudani 2-0 in Sudan in the first leg. In the return leg, the first half ended 0-0. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, Hilal scored and everyone thought it was all over. In the last 15 minutes Esperance, and with a very significant contribution by Chaabani, scored 5 goals and ended up eliminating Hilal. However, I’ve noticed he does not do well against speedy attackers like Chermiti. During last Cup final, I honestly think Chaabani should have been red carded when, as the last defender, pulled down Chermiti. But let’s not open that wound again!

By Skander | July 10th, 2008 at 10:28 am

Achraf i’ve seen the two episodes of noujoum fil 9ayla, The marriage of Zouaghi in Beja and Ghzel in M’saken and Sousse

Posted from Sweden

By Rami | July 10th, 2008 at 10:41 am

I’m jealous! I don’t get to see those I love seeing those biographical pieces and these sound pretty cool. I really need to do something about my tv7 situation. I get cable but I’m sick of not having access to Tunisian television. It’s ironic because growing up I was way more interested in our other foreign channels we had on satelite. Now I want what I was ignoring as a child and teenager!

BTW, what do you need to start receiving TV7 and ART America in the US? It’s through a satelite dish right?

Posted from United States

By Skander | July 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am

Achraf did you see the marriage of Chaker Zouaghi, when they interwiewed his brother Kais Zouaghi and his parents. And l’h7afla before his marriage we sae that Jaziri, Bouazizi was invited and ther were interviewed too haha. Bouazizi was really funny he said “I’m eating right now” to the interviewer laughing adn joking with chaker that the food was kinda bad haha :P. When they were chillin’ in Beja chaker said to the interviewer: “Taw n3ajatlek wled el 7ouma” haha. But in general it’s really funny and exciting to see the small details how they are living daily.

Rami i hope you find a solution pretty soon tou your Tv7 situation -.-.

Posted from Sweden

By Rami | July 10th, 2008 at 11:33 am

Thanks man, I’m sure I could look into it myself but I figure I’d put the question out there to those living in the US. For now Sopcast is keeping me in touch with the matches at least. Don’t know what I’d do without it.

Posted from United States

By Moni | July 10th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

Moine Chaabani gets USD $ 340 000 a year !!!
That Turkisch club pay good money !!!

Posted from Netherlands

By Rachid | July 10th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

Rami, you can get ART through Dish Network, and you pay a monthly fee (about $40 to $50). ART America broadcasts the CAF games. You can get TV7 and a bunch of other arab and non-arab TVs through another dish network that is essentially free (I only paid for the installment). In quire within the Arab community and you’ll likely find someone who does this sort of thing. The funny thing is I watched some of the Euro 2008 games for free on a TV station from Senegal (from all places!). I forgot to mention that TV7 goes by the eastern US time. It’s as if you live in Tunisia, which I find good in Ramadan when they usually have reasonably good shows (”Choufly Hall”).

By Achraf | July 10th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

Yea Skander, I am hoping they would put more athletes so we would see hpow they would live. I like this show. and rami follow what rachid wrote. The guy that made my TV7 IS from Sudan and he lives in Virginia If you want me to give you his # by e-mail. And you would like the show Choufli Hall. Just search some of their episodes on dailymotion amd you will see how funny it is.

Posted from United States

By Momo | July 11th, 2008 at 1:58 am

Seif, man I feel sorry that many of the things going on in Tunisia are getting blinded by things like football. I don’t know maybe its a way for those bastards to keep the people busy with something and not worry about real-life problems. They did not introduce football to us..but they knew it’s our point of weakness. We’re a people that love the game, no matter how hungry or sad we are, we still watch and go to games. So they’re just doubling and tripling the dose for us so that all we can think of and talk about is football. I wish we had a democratic and free country like America where every topic is talked about and criticized including politics, and where all people are equal in opportunity and before the law..I only blame the leaders man..this is some very serious problem..yea football is great and cool and makes us happy but if we become like football-zombies then that’s a very alarming problem! I laugh at this when I hear those people saying hey why do we have so much violence in Tunisian football nowadays? Guess what its you who ask this question..yes you leaders who are responsible for this! You have created this monster and now its biting you in the ass! It’s the leaders who wanted the people to become addicted to the game and become out of touch with reality so don’t be surprised when people KILL others to get one more dose of this addiciting drug! Our country is really sinking and unfortunately football won’t be able to save us, it will actually make it worse if we keep abusing it..I pray for all 10 million people still in Tunisia to understand what is really going on, and know that football is just a game. Right now in Tunisia it is not “just a game”..its much more..perhaps way too much. I wonder why on TV we never see ads that talk bout the beauty of the game and how it can bring people together? why we don’t see the clubs doing social service to the community at all? Why not see for example Esperance players go to Sousse and give gifts to handicapped kids? Why doesn’t the Etoile team go to Sfax and kick the ball around with some unfortunate kids? WHY NOT? Why instead of closed door meetings and trips to Maurtius and Seychelles why don’t these egoistic leaders step down and go deep to places they never heard of in Tunisia and do something for the good people that feed their big stomachs??? WHY NOT?? I wish I can hear what their answers are..that’s if they had any in the first place..

By Moni | July 11th, 2008 at 5:28 am

I have the answer MOMO , its JBOURA !! hehehee

Posted from Netherlands

By Moni | July 11th, 2008 at 5:29 am

How old are you all ?

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | July 11th, 2008 at 7:13 am

Rachid, thanks for the info I need to figure out if I’m renewing my lease on my place before I make a decision to install that stuff but it’s really good to know what it costs and how to get it. And Achraf thanks for the offer for the guys number who can install it. Really nice of you. I’ll contact you if I make the decision to add it. Depends on a couple of factors right now. Don’t know if I’m moving at the end of the summer or not. And by the way, I’ve seen all the episodes of Sbou3i and company in Choufli 7al on dailymotion! Man that show is hilarious. Havne’t been into a mousalsel like that for a long time. Lots of issues that are treated and the characters in it are such a great commentary on the society in Tunis.

Momo, they say religion is the opium of the people but in our case it might very well be soccer. Right now the stadium is the only political arena where you can practice free speech and in sports writing too. Things are very far from perfect but to be honest, it could be a lot worse. That’s a scary prospect…

Moni, I’m turning 23 on August 23rd. I guess they call that your golden birthday or something cuz of the symmetry in the numbers. Hopefully it’ll come three days after an impressive Carthage Eagles victory over either Ghana or Togo. Thats all I want as a present

BTW, sorry for the lack of articles over the last three days. I’ve been working on a few but just haven’t had time to add the finishing touches and post them. There should be a preview up of the weekends CAF games later tonight at the very least!

By skander | July 11th, 2008 at 7:14 am

Hahahaha Choufli 7all is the best programme Tv7 has ever showed especielly in the month of ramadan. Seboui and his brother, (i fotgot his name) is my favourites.. Rami haven’t you watched it?. You’ll die of laughing… But if you see all episodes it’s bettter …

Posted from Sweden

By skander | July 11th, 2008 at 7:14 am

Moni i’m 16 years

Posted from Sweden

By Moni | July 11th, 2008 at 7:24 am

you really surprised me Rami I thought you where in the late 20 ore in the 30, but you are just 22 ! tabarkallah , you do real great job with the articals you write for us.

Skander from Svenska , you lucky one !!! Love the Swedisch girls , they are litle bit crazy, but Bent Bledi is number 1 for me !!

I just turned to 27 on Juli the 7th

I think many people on the blog would be surprised iff they know that you are 22 ! Because of the high Quality of your reports.

Posted from Netherlands

By thamer | July 11th, 2008 at 10:46 am

i’m 18

Posted from United States

By Achraf | July 11th, 2008 at 11:55 am

I’m 16

Posted from United States

By Momo | July 11th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Yeah Rami is a pretty good writer..this shows you just how talented Tunisians are..it’s just the system that needs some overhauling, and yeah I knew you were still going to school man so no surprise you’re 22..actually that’s the same age as me..I bet you’re majoring in Journalism Rami right?

By Abdullah | July 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

19 y.o here

Posted from Netherlands

By Moni | July 11th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

Damn am I the oldest here ?? Achraf, Thamer , Rami and seif al from USA

me and Abdullah from Holland

that leavs poor Skander alone from sweden.

the other guys like MOMO and Marwen look like they live in AREA 51 ore something !!

Abdullah do you got Hyves ?

Posted from Netherlands

By marwen | July 11th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

what do you mean i live in area 51?
no i live in canada; im 16 like some of you
but right now im in tunis

By Moni | July 11th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

hehehe Marwan you are in Tunis Right now , you lucky bastard !!
No offens man , because some people when they post they dont have a Flag.
Like this post you have sent , so I didn’t know where you from man.

Have nice holiday in tunis, by the way , is it busy right now ? im going to tunis in august man , la goulette

Posted from Netherlands

By Rami | July 11th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

Moni, that’s funny you thought I was older haha. I’ll take it as a compliment for sure And Momo, I actually graduated from George Washington University last may with a bachelors in English. Now I work at an international health consulting company but am trying to make my way into this journalism thing… I might go do graduate school in this field or try to find a gig where I can write and get paid. I really want to improve my writing and this blog gives me the opportunity to continually practice which is really the only way you get better. For sure Tunisians are talented, we’re sharp, “Madhin” as they say in our country haha. Its cool to get to know you all better. Thanks for asking that question Moni!

Working on the preview…

By Abdullah | July 11th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

Looks like this might turn out to be a cosy tunisian community right here:D

@Moni, ik heb hyves add me maar dietunees.hyves.nl (sorry for the ppl who didnt understand that :P)

Posted from Netherlands

By Yassine | July 12th, 2008 at 8:39 am

Hey guys, I didn’t comment in almost 20 days, now I’m back home after I was in el Kéf. An uncivilized place. I watched the (arranged?) cup final on the terrestrial channel of Tunis 7 on a tiny TV with an awful reception.
I was really surprised when I saw your age Rami, your articles & reports are excellent. I learn a lot of things from this blog even though I live in Tunisia.
I think that I’m the youngest Tunisian on the blog; I’m only 14 years old.

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