No Golden handshakes here, only the boot

PARIS, June 28: In soccer's more pompous moments, the men in suits who run the sport like to call it a business. But coaches know better. Bo...

PARIS, June 28: In soccer8217;s more pompous moments, the men in suits who run the sport like to call it a business. But coaches know better. Boardrooms can be ruthless but locker rooms are bathed in blood. What fallen business mogul would swap places with South Korean coach Cha Bum-Kun, flown home and forced to apologise to a nation for two bad games? The bottom line in business is profit. In football, it8217;s pride.

The whole of Spain has turned on Javier Clemente, a coach whose World Cup gamble failed when Spain were eliminated. Hounded by the media outside his Bilbao home, he said: quot;Why don8217;t you just finish the job and kill me?quot;

While Wall Street hands out golden handshakes, Carlos Alberto Parreira got the steel stiletto. Two poor games were enough to convince the oil sheikhs who brought the Brazilian former World Cup winner in to coach Saudi Arabia that he had to go 8212; and they booted him out and replaced him as the side prepared for their last game. More than half a dozen coaches who came to the World Cupare on their way out 8212; a number have already been brutally terminated and many more are sleeping badly at night.

Tunisia sacked coach Henri Kasperczak and expelled him from the team8217;s training headquarters before the team8217;s final game, appointing his assistant Ali Selmi to replace him. Now they are said to be in talks with Parreira, a coach whose record will ensure he is back in work soon.

Following Cha8217;s failure for South Korea, who host the 2002 World Cup jointly with Japan, his assistant Kim Pyong-Sok took over. But Kim has no intention of sharing Cha8217;s fate.

Asian football chief Peter Velappan has expressed sympathy for deposed coaches. quot;If you do not win a price has to be paid. It8217;s like working for a large conglomerate. If you don8217;t produce profits, you are out,quot; he said.

Japanese team boss Takeshi Okada preempted any boardroom coup when he announced his resignation after Japan8217;s last game, their third defeat in a row. quot;I take responsibility,quot; he said. That was some business decision.