Brown departs Derby in wake of Cup defeat
DERBY County became the second Coca-Cola Championship club in the East Midlands to part company with their manager in a week when Phil Brown left the club last night.
Brown, who had been due to take part in a BBC Radio 5 Live football forum in Sheffield, was instead summoned to a meeting with John Sleightholme, the chairman, after which the club issued a statement on their website that read: “At a meeting between Phil Brown and the Derby County chairman on Monday evening it was decided that Phil would leave the club.
“We would like to thank Phil for the time and effort he has given to the job and wish him well for the future. There will be an announcement on Tuesday regarding an interim management team.”
Brown, formerly the assistant to Sam Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers, was appointed to succeed George Burley last June and Derby made a reasonable start to the season, losing only one of their first nine league matches. However, they have won only three of their past 17 league games, slipped to nineteenth place and on Saturday were beaten 3-1 by Colchester United in the FA Cup.
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Derby’s decision follows Leicester City’s dismissal of Craig Levein last Wednesday. Leicester approached Burnley yesterday for permission to speak to Steve Cotterill about the vacancy but were turned down. Cotterill spent six months as a coach at the Walkers Stadium in the 2003-04 season.
Congo issue strike threat over bonuses
THE African Cup of Nations quarter-final between Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt on Friday is in doubt after the Congo players threatened to strike over unpaid bonuses worth £14,000 each.
“If they are not paid, they will not play the quarter-final. That’s absolutely certain,” Claude LeRoy, the coach, said. “All these horse-trading discussions go on for hours about bonuses, but when are they going to arrive? All this creates needless tension.”
The Frenchman said that the culture of the Congo, which went through a civil war from 1998 to 2002, partly revealed why the matter was not yet solved.
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“There’s an emergency culture in Congo,” he said. “When you’ve come through a war that has left four million people dead, obviously you’re used to dealing with everything as an emergency.”
South Africa completed the worst performance of any team since the African Cup of Nations was expanded in 1996 by losing 1-0 to Zambia, leaving them with no points and no goals in group C. Guinea, who had already qualified with Zambia, beat Tunisia, the holders, 3-0 to finish top of the group.