{"id":579455,"date":"2026-04-01T22:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579455\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T22:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:43:10","slug":"for-the-second-time-the-saudi-football-federation-responds-to-renards-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579455\/","title":{"rendered":"For the second time&#8230; the Saudi Football Federation responds to Renard&#8217;s departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"article-teaser\">There is controversy surrounding the French coach\u2019s future with the national team<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi Arabian Football Federation has once again responded to reports suggesting that Frenchman Herv\u00e9 Renard is set to step down from his role as head coach of the national team ahead of the 2026 World Cup finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>The French newspaper &#8220;L&#8217;\u00c9quipe&#8221; had revealed Renard\u2019s desire to leave his role as coach of the Saudi national team, following an offer from the Ghana national team to lead them at the 2026 World Cup, succeeding their former coach Otto Addo.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadhiah quoted an official source within the Saudi Arabian Football Federation as categorically denying these reports, stating: \u201cThere is nothing to report on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read also: Marked by a historic defeat to Saudi Arabia&#8230; The story of Renard\u2019s first spell with the Ghana national team<\/p>\n<p>This is the second time the Saudi Arabian Football Federation has denied reports of Renard\u2019s departure, having done so previously ahead of Tuesday\u2019s friendly against Serbia at the TSC Stadium in Belgrade, which ended in a 2-1 defeat for the \u201cGreen Falcons\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The French coach has faced widespread criticism recently, following a difficult qualification for the World Cup via the Asian play-offs, then an exit from the Arab Cup at the semi-final stage, before friendly defeats to Egypt and Serbia respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is controversy surrounding the French coach\u2019s future with the national team The Saudi Arabian Football Federation has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,284118,14640,85,21418],"class_list":{"0":"post-579455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-h-renard","12":"tag-saudi-arabia","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}