Tunisian is the fourth coach to be fired in the history of the World Cup in 2026; list includes Brazilian from 1998
Sabri Lamouchi’s dismissal from Tunisia’s command, announced this Monday, marks the fourth case of a coach being removed during a World Cup. The decision was taken shortly after the 5-1 defeat to Sweden, in the opening game of the 2026 World Cup. It is notable that half of the coaches who lost their positions with the tournament in progress were in charge of the Tunisian team. Furthermore, three of these four situations occurred in the 1998 edition.
Check the list of coaches fired at World Cups
- Carlos Alberto Parreira (1998)
- Cha Bum-kun (1998)
- Henryk Kasperczak (1998)
- Sabri Lamouchi (2026)
The 1998 World Cup saw an unprecedented series of coach dismissals
Before the 1998 World Cup, hosted in France, no coach had been dismissed from his team with the championship underway. However, that specific year, after the second round of the group stage, three coaches were officially fired from their respective positions.
The first to be dismissed was the experienced Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who had already won a world title with Brazil in the previous edition. On that occasion, he was managing the Saudi Arabian team, which secured its place in the World Cup. However, their performance in the group stage was not satisfactory: the team lost 1-0 to Denmark in their debut and suffered a 4-0 defeat against hosts France. In the third and final round, Saudi Arabia was already under the command of interim Mohammed Al-Kharashy, and drew 2-2 with South Africa.
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Two days later, South Korea chose to dismiss their coach, Cha Bum-kun. His departure occurred after the South Korean team was beaten 3-1 by Mexico in the first match and then suffered a 5-0 defeat by the Netherlands, in games valid for Group E. Tunisia also faced difficulties in Group G, losing 2-0 to England in their debut and, in the second round, they were defeated 1-0 by Colombia. Given the results, Polish Henryk Kasperczak, then coach of Tunisia, was also dismissed during the second round of the competition.
