Help Wanted: Togo World Cup Coach
Talk about poor timing. Just days before Togo is scheduled to make its World Cup debut, coach Otto Pfister has reportedly quit the team because of a pay dispute that has gripped his team during its World Cup run-up. “When I started to be manager of Togo, I was promised that bonuses for the players would be cleared,” Pfister said today. “That is still not the case, so I decided to quit immediately. It’s a professional decision.
“However, in not managing a team at the World Cup, my life’s dream has been destroyed. But this is a situation I simply cannot work with.”
Pfister took over the helm of Togo after the Sparrowhawks stunk up the joint at the African Cup of Nations in January. The coach has been less than discreet in expressing his dissatisfaction with the team’s talent and with the country’s football federation.
Only the parties involved really know the full story here, but still, I think this is a bogus move on Pfister’s part. To abandon ship this close to the World Cup is simply absurd. The expectations for Togo are very low heading into the competition and certainly if he lost all three matches his reputation would not really suffer.
But now he will be known as a guy who has left a team high and dry at the last hour. Ironic since he was the coach who helped lead Saudi Arabia through World Cup qualifying in 1998 only to be dismissed before the finals because of a dispute he had with the Saudi princes who run their country’s football federation.
A replacement for Pfister has not been named at this point so get your resume out and feel free to apply for the job. You have four more days before your future employers kick off against South Korea. Plenty of time to brush up on your Togolese. You might have some competition for the job if Miss World Cup applies.
UPDATE: Kodjovi Mawuena takes over as coach. Bummer, we really wanted you to get th gig.
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Comments
By Ali Siddiqui | June 10th, 2006 at 12:35 pm 
Oh man. What a way to crush the morale for the Togo players and the country. I hope this won’t affect the players too badly. 
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By Yoni | June 10th, 2006 at 3:51 pm Wow! This is extremely sad. As an African im very disappointed in this situation. My heart goes out to the Togolese players and to their fans. This would never happen in a European country.
By patrick | June 10th, 2006 at 8:30 pm I’m not sure so how sorry I feel for the players. How do their fellow countrymen and women feel about their constant complaining about hefty bonuses? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Yes, Togo’s football authorities should have settled this long ago. But that’s all we now hear about Togo: pay disputes. Takes the shine off a great story. The whole situation is sad.
By Steve | June 10th, 2006 at 11:35 pm Partrick is right i mean TOGO is in the finals, that in itself should be a celebration, but all i see in the news and web-sites are the pay disputes headlines. too bad, i actually bet on them to beat Korea.
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