In a recent move the president of the Argentine Football Association officially announced the dismissal of Edgardo Bauza as national team coach on Monday night. “Bauza is no longer the coach of the national team,” Claudio Tapia told reporters. The move had widely been expected following Argentina’s defeat to Bolivia last month, and ESPN reported on March 31 that the AFA would sack Bauza after less than a year in charge.
“We’ve reached an agreement, we’ve told Bauza he’s ceased to be the national team coach,” the Argentine FA’s recently elected president Claudio Tapia told reporters after a meeting at the organisation’s Buenos Aires headquarters.
The official announcement was delayed while the federation worked out financial details with Bauza, whose contract had been set to run until 2018 if Argentina qualifies for the World Cup. But that is far from a certainty with their qualifying campaign currently in jeopardy. Argentina are fifth in South American qualifying with four games to play, and only the top four are assured of spots in Russia. And the Bolivia match was the first of four that Argentina will play without Lionel Messi, who was suspended by FIFA for insulting a referee.
The top four in the 10-nation group go through to the 2018 finals in Russia, while the fifth-placed country qualifies for a playoff against a team from Oceania. Bauza presided over eight matches, all 2018 World Cup qualifiers, with three wins, two draws and three defeats. If the AFA can successfully prize Sampaoli away from Sevilla at the end of the season, he would have until August 31 to prepare for Argentina’s next qualifier, a tricky trip to play Uruguay in Montevideo. Tapia has announced a news conference for Tuesday to give details of Bauza’s departure and his possible successor. The new AFA leadership made the decision to dispense with Bauza after Argentina were lucky to beat Chile 1-0 at home with a Messi penalty then lost 2-0 away to Bolivia at high altitude in La Paz last month.
Argentina, who had Messi suspended before the Bolivia game, could be without their talisman in Uruguay and at home to Peru and Venezuela later this year unless they manage to get the ban reduced on appeal. If the appeal fails, Messi would only come back for the final, potentially decisive qualifier away to Ecuador at high altitude in Quito in October. Bauza was appointed last July by Armando Perez, who headed a FIFA committee that administered the AFA and prepared it for the presidential election that Tapia won last month. Messi had quit international football after Argentina’s second successive Copa America final defeat on penalties by Chile in the United States in June, having missed the opening spot kick in the shootout.
