Niko Kovac Fired by Croatia: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction
Rory Marsden@@roomarsden
Featured ColumnistSeptember 9, 2015
Niko Kovac has been fired as the coach of the Croatian national team following a poor set of results in their recent European Championship qualifiers that leaves them in danger of failing to qualifying for next year's France tournament.
Croatian Football Association president Davor Suker announced the decision to remove Kovac from the top job on Wednesday, per Reuters (via Eurosport):
The Croatian Football Association's (HNS) executive board reached a unanimous decision to terminate our contract with Niko Kovac and his entire staff. We will interview his potential successors in the next 10 days or so and come up with a candidate at the next HNS executive board meeting on Sept 21.
The decision follows a 0-0 draw with Azerbaijan and 2-0 defeat to Norway—both away—which have seen Croatia drop into third place in their Euro 2016 qualifying group with two games remaining.
| Euro 2016 Qualifying: Group H Standings | ||||||||
| Teams | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Italy | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 18 |
| Norway | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 16 |
| Croatia | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 16 | 5 | 11 | 15 |
| Bulgaria | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 8 |
| Azerbaijan | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 13 | -7 | 6 |
| Malta | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 13 | -10 | 2 |
| UEFA | ||||||||
Kovac replaced Igor Stimac as Croatia manager just under two years ago. He led them to the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, where they were knocked out at the group stage after defeats to the hosts and Mexico.
The HNS have made a bold decision in dismissing 43-year-old Kovac with only two games remaining of the qualifying campaign.
They are likely banking on the side being boosted by the arrival of a new coach and producing good enough results to propel them back into the top two automatic qualification spots.
