Marcelo Bielsa steps down as coach at 'soap opera' Chile

Problems with federation chief to blame

4 Feb 2011 23:33:00

By Ewan Macdonald

More On :  Chile, Marcelo Bielsa
Chile - Marcelo Bielsa (Firo)
Marcelo Bielsa has confirmed the fears of Chile fans by standing down as coach of the national team, mere months after guiding the Roja to the second round of the 2010 World Cup.

This was confirmed at a brief press conference in the early evening on Friday, during which Bielsa explained that his attempts to co-operate with the new leadership on such projects as the creation of a selection committee had failed.

Bielsa said: "On Thursday I made my decision, and today I quit. I agree, and regret, that it's turned into a soap opera. But honestly, I don't feel responsible for that."

On the problems behind the scenes, he added: "Sergio Jadue [Chilean Football Federation Chief] released information to the press that wasn't true."

"I never made any demands - I just listened."

Bielsa, 55, took over as Chile coach in 2007 and after a difficult start soon became wildly popular with the team's fans by leading the squad to the 2010 World Cup, beating Argentina along the way.

Bielsa's attractive, attacking brand of football reaped only two goals in South Africa but nonetheless saw Chile emerge from the group stage into the second round, where they lost out 3-0 to Brazil.

What lies ahead for the former Argentina manager remains to be seen - as does the future of the Chilean squad. Bielsa is expected to be very much in demand, while the Chilean FA have the arduous task of sourcing a suitable replacement.

Current FA president Sergio Jadue was only voted into office last month, replacing the controversial Jorge Segovia, with whom Bielsa had a rocky relationship.

Bielsa's departure - coming just a day after Jadue speculated that the coach would remain in place - is not the kind of start the new man would have envisioned.

Goal.com Latin America's Ariel Blanco added that a few names are in the hat for Bielsa's replacement.

"There is as yet no clear front runner in the race to become the next Chile boss, but Claudio 'Bichi' Borghi is expected to be among the names raised," he said earlier today.

"Like Bielsa, he's from Argentina, but he has a successful history in Chile as well, winning four league trophies with Colo-Colo between 2006 and 2008."

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With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

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19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
19:24 BST
No, no, no. I'll have none of that Emile Heskey shouting anymore! Hello, it's me, it's me, it's that D-O-Y-L-E. Yes, I'm Joe Doyle, and I'll be here for all the reaction to that England game. First things first, how did everyone see that game? Good performance? A touch boring? Let me know on Twitter.
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