OGC Nice have parted ways with trainer Lucien Favre, with immediate effect. Nice’s performance in Ligue 1 was already disappointing and on Saturday the club was also eliminated from the Coupe de France by third division outfit Le Puy Foot 43 Auvergne. That defeat was fatal to Favre.
Conference League
News of his resignation was reported by L’Équipe and AFP news agency on Monday afternoon, after which Nice confirmed it in a statement. Favre had been working on his second period at Nice since this season, but it turned out to be a lot less successful than the first. Les Aiglons are eleventh in the league with 21 points from 17 games. Nice did finish at the top of Group D of the Conference League.
Favre led Nice to third place in the league in 2016/17, his first season with Nice. In the following season, Nice reached the sixteenth finals of the Europa League under his leadership, partly due to a victory over Vitesse in the group stage. Nice then finished eighth in the league. Favre left for Borussia Dortmund, was fired there in December 2020 and returned to Nice last summer.
The Nice club management hoped that the results would improve after the World Cup. But that turned out not to be the case. In the league, they drew against Lens (0-0) and lost to Stade Rennais (2-1). Favre led the training of Nice on Monday morning, but would have been informed of his dismissal in the afternoon. Assistant coach Didier Digard will work on an interim basis as his successor.
In an earlier interview, after successive failures, “They’ve been saying that for months,” was the former Dortmund manager’s reply. “I don’t read newspapers but I know how it is. I’ll say something about it in a few weeks. I’ll stay calm, trust me.”
