Nepal football coach Abdullah Almutairi to quit after final
Coach announces he is stepping down after Nepal’s made it to SAFF final following a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh. Almutairi’s announcement follows Nepal’s entry into the final, for the first time in 28 years. Photo courtesy: NSJF
Nepal’s Kuwaiti head coach Abdullah Almutairi announced on Wednesday that he would step down after the SAFF Championship final.
Nepal will play the final either against India or the Maldives in Male on Saturday.
Almutairi’s announcement follows Nepal’s entry into the final, for the first time in 28 years.
“The final will be my last match as Nepal coach. I will never come back to Nepal,” said the Kuwaiti at a post-match conference of the SAFF Championship after a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh on Wednesday.
“It was a very bad feeling in the last three days,” said the Kuwaiti referring to a media report ‘attacking him’, but later revealed that he had resigned a week earlier with the condition that he would take charge of the team.
“They speak (bad) about me, my honour. They put the news to make people angry about me. Yesterday we had training at 3, that’s why the assistant coach and other players attended the pre-match conference. I and the captain did not.”
Almutairi spoke of a certain media, saying it was attacking him constantly. He did not say which media.
“I am a coach not a slave,” he said.
The Kuwaiti, sent to Nepal under grant by Qatar FA, also described his short tenure in Nepal as a successful one. He took over the hot seat in April.
“In the first press conference in Nepal, I said three things — we will create history in SAFF, qualify for the third round of Asia Cup, we will make a new team and make all Nepali proud. Today we made all Nepalis proud. And the final game will be my last match with the Nepal national team. I will never come back to Nepal after the match. Some media are making money from my name, let them control the national team.”
He also refused to speak with Nepali media persons at the post-match conference and asked the nationality of reporters everytime they asked questions.
On his resignation, he said, “I resigned a week before the championship began, but I have already resigned. My resignation will be effective from the date the ongoing championship is over.”
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