By Muhammad Elosta.
Tripoli, 25 September 2013:
Former Spanish national coach Javier Clemente is to be Libya’s new coach. An agreement with the Libyan . . .[restrict]Football Federation (LFF) was reached yesterday.
This will be Clemente’s fourth coaching job with a national team. He was with Spain between 1992 -1998, Serbia from 2006- 2007 and then Cameroon for a year and a half from 2010-2011. Cameroon sacked him after it failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
Clemente, 63, will be replacing former head Coach Abdul Hadifah Erbeesh who recently resigned after the Libyan team lost to Cameroon in the World Cup qualifications.
Libya has never yet qualified for the World Cup. The country will host the 2017 African Cup.
Following Erbeesh’s departure, there had been speculation that Italian Giovanni Trapattoni, Ireland’s former coach, would take the position. However, at 74 years of age, some thought him too old.
A statement from the LFF yesterday said that “we have reached an agreement in principle for Clemente to begin work at the head of our national team starting in October”. [/restrict]
