China's new women's soccer coach is already facing the axe after repeated clashes with officials, including a furious row over a hotpot dinner, state media reported yesterday.
Frenchwoman Elisabeth Loisel, who was appointed in October, is likely to be sacked if the "Steel Roses" disappoint at next week's East Asian Cup, reports said.
"She is walking on a knife-edge," Titan Sports Weekly said. "Her only chance will be to win the East Asian Cup."
Loisel is apparently locked in a feud with Chinese team management with her ability and training methods also coming under fire in domestic media.
Tempers reached boiling point over the hotpot dispute, with officials reportedly ordering Loisel to keep out of off-pitch affairs.
According to the Beijing Morning Post, Loisel ordered players not to attend the dinner arranged by Chinese officials because of dietary concerns.
But Chinese officials hit back, over-ruling the hotpot ban and issuing a public rebuke against the Frenchwoman.
The former French national coach was hired after the abrupt departure of Sweden's Marika Domanski-Lyfors following a poor run in the women's World Cup.
She is tasked with guiding China to a semi-final place at the Beijing Olympics in August.
Media reports say she is regarded by the Chinese side as too insistent on her authority as chief coach and is unwilling to listen.
Another focus for Chinese anger was her decision to bring 33-year-old former international star Zhang Ouying back into the side, a move strongly opposed by the team manager, the report said.
This week she reportedly called the players together for a private meeting and told them she no longer trusted the Chinese officials.
Under the headline "Coach's job at risk," Titan said soccer chiefs were divided on whether to fire her now or keep her, but she would probably be forced out after the East Asian Cup.
"Her only defense is to win it," the paper said.
After a brief honeymoon following her appointment, including two wins over New Zealand, Loisel has had a hard time in China.
The coach was singled out for criticism after a four-team tournament in southern Guangzhou last month in which China lost 1-0 to the US, beat Finland 2-0 and drew with Canada 0-0.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier