The Libyan Football Federation has sacked the French head coach of the national team, Corentin Martins, following a string if poor performances.
In a statement on Tuesday, the federation said it has now set its sights on a getting an homegrown coach as a replacement going into the later stages of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying campaign.
The 53-year-old Martins was only hired on a year-long contract in April last year, replacing Javier Clemente who was fired due to poor performance by the Mediterranean Knights.
“The committee members all agreed to choose a national coach from Libya
“We’re doing our best to choose a coach who will be capable to really enhance the level of the performance of the players, to encourage them and to give them a new spirit.
“Our next two matches against Tunisia are very important for us in order to qualify. We hope that our players will do their best,” the Secretary General of the Libyan Football Federation, Abdul Nasser Ahmed, said in a statement.
The decision to sack Martins, coached Mauritania for seven years, according to Ahmed, comes after a poor performance at the recently concluded African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria where Libya crashed out at the group stage.
“(CHAN) was not really satisfying for any of us: media, public, for us as a federation and for Corentin Martins as well,” Ahmed said.
“It was a great effort to organise the team but unfortunately, things did not go the way he wanted or the way we wanted.
“Therefore, we had a meeting with him and both agreed that we will finish this contract agreement with him on a very friendly basis, which was done.”