Scharnowski spells out roles

THE president and owner of Civics Football Club, Helmuth Scharnowski, has confirmed that Ricardo Mannetti has been relieved of his duties as head coach of Civics.

Scharnowski however said that Mannetti would stay on with the club and his new role within the technical department would be announced soon.On Sunday, Civics issued a press release signed by team manager Paul Stramis, which stated that Mannetti had been relieved of his duties as head coach.’Ricardo Mannetti is relieved of his duties as head coach with immediate effect but will remain with the club as a member of the technical team. Helmuth Scharnowski will take over with immediate effect and he will be assisted by Woody Jacobs,’ it stated.Yesterday, two local daily newspapers quoted Mannetti as saying that he was still the head coach at Civics.On enquiry, Scharnowski however reiterated that he had taken over as head coach and that Mannetti had been relieved of his duties.’These reports have just confused the public, so let me clear the air. I am the club owner and president, and I decided that Ricardo Mannetti would be relieved of his duties. I will take over as head coach with Woody Jacobs as my assistant and we will later make a statement regarding Ricardo’s future role with Civics,’ he said.According to one report, Mannetti was quoted as saying that he would head the team’s technical department and give instructions to the coaches, but Scharnowski refuted this. ‘It is total nonsense that he will be giving me instructions as a newspaper reported. He is obviously emotional about the whole issue, and feeling bad about the situation. I don’t know why he is making these comments,’ he said.Civics, who won the Premier League for three seasons in a row between 2003 and 2006, have had their worst start for the past decade, after losing five of their opening seven matches, while winning one and drawing one match.Scharnowski said that the writing was on the wall, even before their most recent 2-1 defeat to SKW last Friday, and that it was normal practise to change the technical department.’If you have five defeats in your opening seven matches, any respectable guy will have to make a break. This is normal and part of the game. Ricardo did a good job, but the results were not forthcoming so I decided to make a change,’ he said.Scharnowski said he had not decided for how long he would act as the head coach, but did not have another option at this stage.’In the past I also took over after Ali Akan and Eric Muinjo left and on both occasions we went on to win the league. This time, though, it will be much more difficult, but there is no other way,’ he said.He said he would make a decision about the coaching staff at a later stage.’I will decide about that later, but for now we first have to focus on our remaining four matches in the first round. I don’t have time to coach, but who else will do it now? But I have to act now,’ he said. – www.namibiasport.com