Mauritania Football Has Enormous Potential, Neveu Says INTERVIEW Nouakchott — Patrice Neveu, the French coach sacked by the Mauritanian federation following the teams elimination from CAN 2015 in Morocco, is not bitter, even though he admits he was surprised at the decision taken by the federation. Still in Nouakchott to sort out the final details concerning his departure when we met him, he wanted to talk about his experience with Mauritanian football and his future. How were you sacked and how did you feel about it? I was very surprised at the decision, because it had been agreed that Id continue up to the end of my contract in February 2015. However, Im a high-level coach, and I know how it works. I feel its the end of an exciting adventure, because I enjoyed working in this country. What happened in the last two matches against Uganda? In the first-leg match, we had a lot of problems with the unexpected suspension of our captain. We were missing Guidileye Diallo (Limassol) and Dominique Da Silva (formerly with Zamalek), and Mamadou Wade was injured. We still played a decent match. We went a goal down at the end of the match because we werent at the peak of our fitness, due to the fact that wed stopped training after the second-leg match against Equatorial Guinea. We didnt know exactly when the CAF was going to decide on our reserves. In the second-leg match, we had the match perfectly under control in the first half, and created a lot of opportunities. Unfortunately, the strikers didnt manage to find a way through. In the second half, I brought on Karamogho Moussa Traoré to give us a bit more of an edge, but he behaved very badly and managed to land himself a red card. Perhaps I should have brought on Ely Cheikh Ould Voulani (aka Etoo), but I wasnt to know. Youve spent more than two years in Mauritania. What do you think of the future of football in this country? Neveu: Theres huge potential in this country, and you need to keep working with the young players. Thats what I was planning to do with the home side. Unfortunately, that wasnt possible. Still, I sincerely believe this is a country thats going places, and can continue to make progress over the coming years as long as those in charge of the federation stay on the right track. Where are you headed next? Ive got a lot of contacts in Africa and elsewhere. However, for the moment Im going to enjoy spending time with my family before making a decision about my next destination.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 06:22:27 +0000
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