BFF ‘sacks’ Rubcic, new nat’l coach Jovanovski
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Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Football Federation on Tuesday finally dismissed national coach Robert Rubcic and replaced him with Macedonian Gjorgji Jovanovski for a year.
Rubcic, frustrated at not being paid for four months, left Bangladesh on June 2 and had not been in contact with the federation people since then.
The federation initially played down the event saying that he had left for an urgent family business and he would return soon.
It later came be known that the federation was hiding the truth. Rubcic had not responded to any federation call and had not replied any e-mail.
Finding no other option, the federation turned to his agent, who also failed to resolve the issue. The agent is said to have been able to only make a contact with the coach’s wife and son.
‘We did not have any complaint against him as he was a perfect gentleman. But we are not certain why so behaved,’ said Badal Roy, head of the national team management committee, at a press conference.
‘We had his payment ready and we told him in an e-mail to let us know of the mode of payment. But we did not get any reply,’ he said.
‘We waited for days for his reply, but there was no sign of him coming back soon. So we had to act,’ said Badal, who has by now seen unusual ending with three foreign coaches during the three-year tenure on the federation’s executive committee.
Brazilian Edson Dido was the first foreign coach to be recruited by the present committee, headed by former footballer Kazi Salahuddin.
Dido could not complete his term as the federation sacked him for his stubbornness against interference of officials in team selection.
Serbian coach Zoran Djordjevic had replaced him and guided Bangladesh to the SA Games gold before his demand for unusual salary and term for a contract renewal resulting in his parting with the federation.
Rubcic joined in September, about six months after Zoran had left. His contract was scheduled to expire on August 31.
‘It is true that we had to change so many coaches in such a short period but if you look at facts, you must admit that we had very little choice,’ Badal said.
‘None of the coaches left over performance issue. They left because they could not adjust with us,’ he said.
The fourth foreign coach Jovanovski, whose last job was with the CSKA Sofia, Bulgaria in 2010–11 season, is expected to take over on June 19.
His first task will be to oversee the Bangladesh national side in the two-leg World Cup 2014 pre-qualifiers against Pakistan.
Bangladesh face Pakistan in the first leg of their Asian zone first-round qualifier on June 29 in Dhaka with the return leg in Lahore on July 3.
Jovanovski, a former Yugoslavia international, coached the Macedonia national team in 2001-2002.
His annual salary will be $66,000. Badal said that they would work out his mode of payment once he arrived in Dhaka.
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