Exclusive: Abdelhak Ben Chikha appointed as Algeria new coach until 2012, FAF’s President says

Abdelhak Ben Chikha was appointed as Algeria new national coach until the African Cup finals 2012, president of the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) told Echorouk on Monday.

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• “Officially, we decided to appoint Ben Chikha as the national team’s coach to succeed Rabah Saadane. He will start his job in the next few days. The match against the Central African Republic (CAR) due to be held on October 10th will be his first game,” said Mohamed Raouraoua.
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• “The appointment of Ben Chikha came in a short time. Contrarily to report news, the man did not give any condition. The conditions were given by us,” he added.
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• “I had a friendly meeting with Ben Chikha and it was short. We made the deal in few minutes. He did not give me any condition but we gave him our conditions. We determined our objective to reach the African Cup finals in 2012.”
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• Raouraoua also said Saadane’s assistants Zuheir Djelloul and Hassan Belhadji will stay with Ben Chikha until the end of his contract.
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• “A competent coach will be appointed along with Ben Chikha to reinforce the staff and give more strength to the national team,” said Raouaroau without giving details about the nationality of the forthcoming coach.
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• He believes that the FAF’s choices come as part of an endeavour meant to rehabilitate the Algerian executives, saying Ben Chikha’s CV makes him eligible to be Algeria coach.