Tunisia, only nation to change coaches during World Cup twice
Tunisia’s head coach Sabri Lamouchi (left) has been fired after the 1-5 disaster vs Sweden. His fellow Frenchman Hervé Renard (right) took over to watch another devastating defeat, 0-4 vs Japan.
It is the 5th case of coach change in a team during a World Cup edition and the 4th time a head coach has been fired (in one of the previous, Tunisia already have pulled the trigger).
Strangely, all three previous instances took place during the same edition (1998); in each occasion the teams in question had already been eliminated with one game still to play.
*Carlos Alberto Parreira was fired by Saudi Arabia after a 0-4 defeat to France which followed a 0-1 loss to Denmark. Mohammed Al-Kharashy led the Saudis to a 2-2 draw in their final group game vs South Africa.
*South Korea dismissed Cha Bum-kun after two defeats, 1-3 to Mexico and 0-5 to Netherlands. Caretaker Kim Pyung-seok guided the team to a 1-1 draw against Belgium in their final group match.
*Tunisia parted ways with Henryk Kasperczak after 0-2 to England and 0-1 to Colombia. His replacement, Ali Selmi, managed then a 1-1 draw against Romania.
*The different case belongs to Scotland’s Andy Beattie in 1954 who is only one coach so far to resign mid-World Cup due to his own intention. Beattie, unhappy with the Scottish FA, which had only allowed him to select 13 players in his squad, stepped down after a 0-1 defeat to Austria opening game. He was replaced by a selection committee for the second and last group game, in which Scotland were thrashed 7-0 by Uruguay.
*In the meantime, Hervé Renard became 5th coach in history to head 3 different teams in World Cup, also Morocco in 2018 and Saudi Arabia n 2022.
| WORLD CUP | CHANGES | OF COACHES | ||
| Team | Edition | First Coach | Second Coach | |
| 1 | Scotland | 1954 | Andy Beattie | selection committee |
| 2 | Saudi Arabia | 1998 | Carlos Alberto Parreira | Mohammed Al-Kharashy |
| 3 | South Korea | 1998 | Cha Bum-kun | Kim Pyung-seok |
| 4 | Tunisia | 1998 | Henryk Kasperczak | Ali Selmi |
| 5 | Tunisia | 2026 | Sabri Lamouchi | Hervé Renard |