The President of the Saudi Football Federation, Yasser Al-Misehal, stressed that there is absolutely no intention to dismiss coach Roberto Mancini from his position as coach of the Saudi national team.
Calls are rising for the Italian coach to leave his position in light of the decline in the Green Falcons’ levels, which reached their peak with the 2-0 loss to Japan in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
After the match, Al-Misehal responded to that by saying, “The team’s ranking was seventieth in the world, and with Mancini it became fiftieth, we are working on the right track.”
He also added, “Mancini will continue with the Saudi national team until the 2026 World Cup, the work he is doing just needs time.”
He concluded, “We performed well against Japan, and it is unfortunate that we were defeated in the end. The players need more time with the coach. We have a clear problem in scoring goals.”
The Saudi national team will meet its Bahraini counterpart next Tuesday in the fourth round of the third round of the qualifiers, and the two teams share second place with 4 points each.
