Jorge Sampaoli to accept Argentina coaching job
The AFA will hold a meeting with the coach after Sevilla's league game against Valencia on Sunday. The Spanish club voiced their anger in a statement this afternoon.Argentina - Nigeria
Jorge Sampaoli is practically guaranteed to be the next Argentina coach. The Sevilla coach has given the OK to the proposal put forward by the Argentinean Football Association (AFA) who earlier this week sacked Edgardo Bauza after little over seven months in charge of the Albiceleste.
Sampaoli, who guided Chile to victory against Argentina in the 2015 Copa América must now reach an agreement with Sevilla to rescind the contract which binds him to the Andalucians until June 2018.
This weekend, AFA officials will fly to Spain to hammer out the finer details of the conditions he must adhere to as national team coach. A meeting has been arranged after Sevilla's league game against Valencia at Mestalla on Sunday. During that meeting, it will be discussed how the AFA will pay the 1.8 million euro buy-out clause written into the Rosario-born coach's contract which he signed last summer.
Sevilla issue statement, citing AFA-Sampaoli meeting as "unacceptable"
Once they got wind of the AFA's planned meeting with their coach, Sevilla issued a statement denouncing the South Americans for plotting to hijack their coach at and potentially derail their league ambitions just as the season enters its critical stage.
"In response to the reports published in various local and international media in relation to a possible interest by the Asociación del Futbol Argentino (AFA) in hiring Jorge Sampaoli - who is under contract at Sevilla FC until 30 June 2018, and also to the declarations made by AFA president Claudio Tapia, regarding a proposed meeting in Spain during the next few days, Sevilla FC have addressed a written communiqué to the AFA in which it is stated that, if these allegations are true, Sevilla FC consider it to show a lack of respect, and regard any meeting or contact which could produce a breach of contract between our club and our coach as completely unacceptable and under such circumstances would not hesitate in exercising our rights".
The news comes just 24 hours after Sevilla president José Castro declared that he believed Sampaoli was happy in the Sevilla job and would see out his contract with the club.