Santini succeeds axed Lemerre as France coach
By Jean-Paul Couret
PARIS, July 19 (Reuters) - Jacques Santini was named France coach on Friday, succeeding Roger Lemerre who was sacked after the World Cup defending champions' first round exit last month.
The 50-year old Santini steered Olympique Lyon to their first ever French league title last season.
His appointment was announced by French Football Federation (FFF) president Claude Simonet at the end of a FFF council meeting in Paris.
'I selected Santini because he was respected by all of the French football family and because of his results as a coach with Olympique Lyon,' Simonet said.
The first task for the new national coach will be to qualify holders France for the 2004 European championship finals in Portugal.
They will start with an away game in Cyprus on September 7 after warming up in a friendly match in Tunisia on August 21. Slovenia, Israel and Malta are also in France's European qualifying group.
France sacked Lemerre two weeks ago after his strongly-fancied side failed to win a match or score a goal in the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan last month.
Three other candidates were on the Federation short list: Philippe Troussier, who steered co-hosts Japan to an unprecedented second round berth in the World Cup finals last month, France's under-21 coach Raymond Domenech and Rene Girard, a former assistant of Roger Lemerre.
They all were interviewed by Simonet on Wednesday.
DEEP CRISIS
The choice of Santini, who was supported by the professional clubs, marks a break with France's 10-year tradition of handing the job to the assistant of the outgoing coach.
Gerard Houllier replaced Michel Platini in 1992, Aime Jacquet succeeded Houllier in 1993 and Lemerre took over from the World-Cup winning coach in August 1998.
Santini was appointed at the end of a fierce power struggle and the process of selecting Lemerre's successor was a painfully slow process, such was the crisis opened by France's World Cup failure.
After adding the Euro 2000 and the 2001 Confederations Cup titles to their credits under Lemerre, the 1998 world champions left for South Korea and Japan as tournament favourites.
But France suffered the humiliation of becoming the first holders to be knocked out of the World Cup in the first round of the finals for 36 years.
They finished bottom of group A after failing to score a single goal in three games and gathering just one point. They suffered a shock 1-0 loss in the opening game to newcomers Senegal, were held 0-0 by Uruguay and lost 2-0 to Denmark.
Lemerre refused to resign and Simonet, who did not want to turn him into a scapegoat, waited for 24 days after the defeat to Denmark before sacking him on July 5.
By Jean-Paul Couret
PARIS, July 19 (Reuters) - Jacques Santini was named France coach on Friday, succeeding Roger Lemerre who was sacked after the World Cup defending champions' first round exit last month.
The 50-year old Santini steered Olympique Lyon to their first ever French league title last season.
His appointment was announced by French Football Federation (FFF) president Claude Simonet at the end of a FFF council meeting in Paris.
'I selected Santini because he was respected by all of the French football family and because of his results as a coach with Olympique Lyon,' Simonet said.
The first task for the new national coach will be to qualify holders France for the 2004 European championship finals in Portugal.
They will start with an away game in Cyprus on September 7 after warming up in a friendly match in Tunisia on August 21. Slovenia, Israel and Malta are also in France's European qualifying group.
France sacked Lemerre two weeks ago after his strongly-fancied side failed to win a match or score a goal in the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan last month.
Three other candidates were on the Federation short list: Philippe Troussier, who steered co-hosts Japan to an unprecedented second round berth in the World Cup finals last month, France's under-21 coach Raymond Domenech and Rene Girard, a former assistant of Roger Lemerre.
They all were interviewed by Simonet on Wednesday.
DEEP CRISIS
The choice of Santini, who was supported by the professional clubs, marks a break with France's 10-year tradition of handing the job to the assistant of the outgoing coach.
Gerard Houllier replaced Michel Platini in 1992, Aime Jacquet succeeded Houllier in 1993 and Lemerre took over from the World-Cup winning coach in August 1998.
Santini was appointed at the end of a fierce power struggle and the process of selecting Lemerre's successor was a painfully slow process, such was the crisis opened by France's World Cup failure.
After adding the Euro 2000 and the 2001 Confederations Cup titles to their credits under Lemerre, the 1998 world champions left for South Korea and Japan as tournament favourites.
But France suffered the humiliation of becoming the first holders to be knocked out of the World Cup in the first round of the finals for 36 years.
They finished bottom of group A after failing to score a single goal in three games and gathering just one point. They suffered a shock 1-0 loss in the opening game to newcomers Senegal, were held 0-0 by Uruguay and lost 2-0 to Denmark.
Lemerre refused to resign and Simonet, who did not want to turn him into a scapegoat, waited for 24 days after the defeat to Denmark before sacking him on July 5.
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