National coach Bandar Al-Jaithan refuted the main reasons that led to the dismissal of French coach Hervé Renard from his position as technical director of the Saudi national team, less than two months before the start of the 2026 World Cup
He stressed that this decision came at the right time and was made for several fundamental reasons, which can be summarized in the following points:
Renard's reliance on the players who participated with him in the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar, when he was the coach of the Green Falcons and achieved positive results, the most important of which was the victory over the world champion, Argentina, led to a decline in the technical level. The players in the last World Cup had passion, spirit, and enthusiasm, which was an advantage for the Saudi player. After he was contracted for the second time, he relied on most of the players he supervised in the first stage, and this was troubling because these players were over thirty years old, and this will undoubtedly weaken the performance on the field. This happened because he did not combine the experienced player who is still playing in the Saudi League and performing at a high level with the young players, which made the technical performance weak. He also made a serious and big mistake by including 50 players three months before the World Cup, and this should have been done at least before the World Cup. With a “year” so that he can properly assess the players’ levels and choose the most deserving without considering any of the levels in which he plays. Also, the decline in friendly results, the last of which was against the Egyptian national team and lost (4-0) and against Serbia and lost (2-1), hastened the search for a replacement for him as a result of this decline. After these negative results, major concerns were raised by the Saudi Federation regarding the readiness of “the Green” for the World Cup, so he was dismissed in order to create a positive shock to draw an honorable technical image for the Green in the World Cup in the eighth group of our national team, which includes (Spain, Uruguay, and Cape Verde).
The national coach Bandar Al-Jaithen refuted the main reasons that led to the dismissal of French coach Hervé Renard from his position as the head coach of the Saudi national team, less than two months before the start of the 2026 World Cup.
He confirmed that this decision came at the right time and was made for several fundamental reasons that can be summarized in numerous points as follows:
Renard's reliance on the players who participated with him in the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar, when he was the coach of the national team and achieved positive results, including the victory over the world champion Argentina, led to a decline in the technical level. The players in the last World Cup had passion, spirit, and enthusiasm, which were characteristics of the Saudi player. After he was contracted for the second time, he relied on most of the players he supervised in the first phase, which was bothersome since these players were over thirty years old. This, without a doubt, would weaken their performance on the field. This situation arose because he did not combine experienced players who are still playing in the Saudi league and delivering great performances with younger players, which made the technical performance weak. He also made a grave mistake by including 50 players three months before the World Cup; This should have been done at least a year before the World Cup so he could accurately assess the players' levels and choose the most deserving without considering the leagues they play in. Additionally, the decline in friendly match results, the latest being a loss to Egypt (4-0) and a loss to Serbia (2-1), hastened the search for a replacement due to this decline. After these negative results raised major concerns within the Saudi Federation regarding the readiness of the “Green” for the World Cup, he was dismissed in order to create a positive shock to present an honorable technical image for the national team in the World Cup in our national team’s group eight, which includes (Spain, Uruguay, and Cape Verde).
