Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: AZAM FC have named poor performance of the team as the main reason behind the sacking of Romanian trainer Aristica Cioaba who lately guided them to two successive Premier League defeats.
The bad signal for Cioaba’s future at the helm of Azam was vividly seen when they lost 1-0 to Young Africans thereby surrendering their league authority as they now trail the leaders with three points.
The loss was painful to the club as prior to that, they also went down 1-0 to KMC hence losing essential six points from two games in the process something which was not conducive for a club seeking to challenge league title at the end of the season.
But, clarifying on the issue on Friday, the club’s Information Officer Thabit Zakaria said the two parties reached mutual agreement to go separate ways due to poor performance of the team and that, Assistant Coach Bahati Vivier will be in charge until further notice.
“As you know, we began the season on the front pedal winning seven straight games but from the eighth game to the twelfth one, things made a U-turn to the extent that the fighting spirit from players was nowhere to be seen. “The board saw this as a threat towards our mission of clinching the title this season hence decided to part ways with the coach and has since wished him all the best,” Zakaria said.
He added that a lot will be said by people following Cioaba’s sacking but he cemented that the bottom line for his release is due to poor performance and nothing else.
Again, Zakaria pointed out that the coach was once summoned to elaborate on how suddenly the morale in the team among players had dropped but to their surprise; he replied that he has no answers to their cease of morale.
He then denounced rumours linking former Simba coach Patrick Aussems and Yanga coach Mwinyi Zahera as possible candidates to seize control of the team while insisting that coach Vivier will be in control of the situation for the time being.
According to the available statistics, from 50 games at the helm of Azam, Cioaba has managed 28 wins, 11 defeats and 11 draws.
