Basile quits Boca Juniors
Reuters - Friday 22 January 2010, 16:18
BUENOS AIRES - Boca Juniors coach Alfio
Basile resigned on Friday following his team's humiliating 3-1
defeat by bitter rivals River Plate in a summer-recess friendly.
"A man who has done a lot for the club has just resigned and
(reserve team coach) Abel Alves is taking interim charge," Boca
president Jorge Amor Ameal told a news conference.
Basile, whose side fell to River in Mar del Plata on
Wednesday, was unable to build a successful team in his second
spell at Boca since his return last July having lifted several
titles with the club between 2005 and 2006.
It is the second failed comeback of the gruff 66-year-old
after he flopped with the national team in his 2006-2008 spell
having steered Argentina to successive Copa America victories in
1991 and 1993.
"We're going to take the necessary time to make a decision
(on a new appointment), Alves is a man of the club," said Amor
Ameal referring to the 51-year-old former Boca midfielder, who
has been caretaker twice before.
Amor Ameal denied categorically that general manager Carlos
Bianchi would be first choice to succeed Basile, saying "Bianchi
does not want to coach."
Boca, like River, had a troubled 2009. It will be the first
time in 15 years that neither of the country's "big two" will
take part in the Libertadores Cup, South America's top club
championship.
RIQUELME INJURY
Boca had hoped Basile's return in July would spark a
recovery but he had a tendency to rely too heavily on the
veterans, playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme, striker Martin Palermo
and goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri.
Riquelme, a Basile favourite with Boca and Argentina, missed
more than half last year's Apertura championship through injury
and the team felt his absence badly.
Wednesday's non-competitive match in the seaside resort of
Mar del Plata, played as fiercely as the league derbies between
the arch-rivals, was Riquelme's return from injury.
Bianchi, 60, would be a popular choice having led Boca to a
string of titles including the Libertadores Cups three times in
the early 2000s.
The beleaguered Basile, chatty and optimistic when he was
unveiled at a July news conference, has spoken to media just
once in the last three months, suffered rifts in the dressing
room and was unpopular with several members of the club board.
Media reported that he had lost the support of Bianchi, who
questioned his tactics for the match against River Plate.
River will be Boca's rivals again on Sunday in another
mid-season friendly in Mendoza.
The Clausura championship, closing half of the
two-tournament season, kicks off on the final weekend of
January.