Relief and Despair: Santini Turns Down Tunisia Offer!

Perhaps this is proof that collective concentration on the part of Tunisian NT fans actually works? I’m convinced our thought waves (that’s a scientific term) actually affected Jacques Santini’s decision. I know that I dedicated at least 25 percent of daily brain power to dissuading the Frenchman from accepting the offer from the FTF. So give yourself a pat on the back if you were exercising your telepathic mind control techniques also!

Jokes aside, I am serious when I say this is good news. However, there’s always another side to the story and in this case it’s this: What now? Santini basically refused for the same reason as Bertrand Marchand. Starting on the 1st of July after we’ve played four qualifiers didn’t make sense to him either. In addition, he wanted to bring a French technical staff with him when one of our main conditions is that they all be Tunisian.

This all stems from the FTF’s inability to do something that is theoretically very simple: Send Roger Lemerre packing! There’s no reason he should be holding us hostage. What happened to a good old fashioned firing? What I’ve gathered is that we don’t want to pay him his last two months salary without having him work for them. Are we that cheap? Sadly, the answer is yes. We don’t want to be paying two salaries at once for a mere two months, even if it’s in the best interest of Tunisian football. If we had done this, Marchand would have been our coach. Unlike Santini, that was his only point of contention. He works well with his Tunisian assistant Taoufik Zaaboub at Etoile and would have had no problem with an all Tunisian staff.

Given our reluctance or inability to get rid of Lemerre before our qualifiers begin at the end of this month, it’s unlikely that we would be able to convince Marchand to reconsider (even though it’s worth a try). Now the names that are floating around are as follows: Faouzi Benzarti (under contract with Lybia), Rohr, Claude Le Roy, Tigana, Zouaoui, and Decastel. I wonder if any of them would agree to start after four games were in the books. It just goes to show, don’t expect coaches to want to pick up the pieces if they’re going to be held accountable for results that they had nothing to do with.

It could all be so simple, but FTF doesn’t like simple. They like Mexican soap operas, and we have a very entertaining/disturbing one going on. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next episode. This is what happens when you put business men who know nothing about soccer in charge of a football federation!

Update

According to Infosfoot, the FTF is attempting to restart negotiations with Bertrand Marchand! I’m sure Etoile won’t be happy about this. The last thing they need is their coach to be distracted before this weekends decisive matches! But what is their sales pitch even going to be? If they get on their knees and beg I doubt he’ll change his mind as long as he can’t coach those first four games. Hopefully I’m wrong.

Update 2.0

Mosaique FM reports that Faouzi Benzarti’s name is the first on the list. This contradicts the update above. As far as I’m concerned, both are good options. This would be a big loss for Lybia but I read on Tunisie Foot that the Lybian Football Federation president said he’d let Benzarti go if he wanted to coach his country. We shall see. Stay tuned!