Morais steps down as Sepahan head coach
Jose Morais has left his job as Sepahan head coach, the Persian Gulf Pro League club announced on Saturday.
Morais’s number two and fellow-Portuguese Hugo Almeida will take the interim role on Sepahan bench “until further decisions are made by the club board,” the Iranian top-flight side wrote in a statement.
The Portuguese’s decision comes as a shock after his team overtook Tractor on top of the domestic league table thanks to a 1-0 home victory over Iralco on Friday.
No clear reasons have been mentioned behind Morais’s resignation, who skipped the post-match press conference on Friday, though he is believed to have grown frustrated with sections of Sepahan fans following chants against him and his players at the Fooladshahr Stadium.
A former assistant to Jose Mourinho in Inter, Chelsea, and Real Madrid, Morais was appointed to the Sepahan role for the start of 2022/23 season and led his team to a runner-finish behind Persepolis in the league.
Sepahan finished third in the league last campaign and then lifted the domestic cup trophy in June – a first piece of silverware for the club in nine years – while being knocked out by Saudi giant Al Hilal in the AFC Champions League last 16.
The Isfahan-based club, which had to part ways with several key players in Ramin Rezaeian, Shahriar Moghanlou, Farshad Ahmadzadeh, and Omid Nourafkan in the summer, got off to a disappointing start to new season, falling to a 4-1 home defeat against the UAE’s Shabab Al Ahli in the AFC Champions League Elite qualifying playoff.
The defeat sent Morais’s side into the continent’s second-tier club competition, AFC Champions League Two, where Sepahan is third in the Group C table with three points – trailing Sharjah and Al Wehdat by four – courtesy of two defeats in three outings.
Sepahan’s first game under Almeida will come against Sharjah in Doha on Tuesday.