Cote d’Ivoire FA deny links with Frank De Boer

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Thursday Apr 05, 2018. 09:30

Media reports in Cote d’Ivoire suggest that the Ivorian Football Federation has rubbished news that they have offered Frank De Boer a job as the national team coach.

Although the FIF confirmed their search for a new manager, they denied links with the former Crystal Palace manager and Dutch international.

According to a news website, Linfodrome, the FIF was set to appoint the Dutchman as coach to succeed former boss in Belgian Marc Wilmots.

The speculation comes after Wilmots parted ways with the 2015 African champions by mutual agreement in November.

However, FIF denied the report in a statement through vice-president Sory Diabate, who described reports of an approach to De Boer as unfounded.

"It's no secret that FIF is searching for a new Elephants coach to replace Marc Wilmots,” said Diabate.

"The Federation is working hard on this and will announce the name of the coach in due course."

The West African FA has since appointed Ibrahim Kamara as caretaker coach who led the team in last month's friendly fixtures against Togo and Moldova in France.

On their road to Cameroon for the 2019 CAF African Cup of Nations tournament, the Elephants lost 3-2 at home to Guinea in their opening Group H encounter last June and will meet Rwanda in September.