Tunisia Fired Their World Cup Coach After One Game. That's Never Happened Before.

Tunisia sacked head coach Sabri Lamouchi after one game of the 2026 World Cup, making him the first manager in the tournament's history to lose his job after a single match. ^[1]

The trigger was a 5-1 loss to Sweden in Guadalupe on Sunday. The opening goal, seven minutes in, came from Yasin Ayari, whose father is Tunisian. He scored twice against the country, and Sweden's five goals made it their highest-scoring World Cup match since 1938. ^[2]

Here's the part the viral version mostly gets right: this is genuinely unprecedented. Managers have been removed mid-tournament before — Tunisia themselves did it in 1998, firing Henryk Kasperczak after a poor start — but no coach had ever been cut after just one game. ^[3] The Tunisian Football Federation framed it gently, announcing the "termination of its contractual relationship" with Lamouchi by mutual agreement.

Where the reports split is on who comes next. Most outlets, including CBS, the BBC and the Guardian, say former Saudi Arabia boss Hervé Renard has been appointed until the end of the tournament. ^[3] Sky Sports, citing the Tunisian FA's Instagram, reported plans to install Mondher Kebaier on an interim basis instead. ^[4] The Renard version is better evidenced — three outlets carry the federation's statement, which even mentions opening long-term negotiations after the World Cup.

Renard is no random hire. He beat eventual champions Argentina with Saudi Arabia in 2022 and has won the Africa Cup of Nations twice.

So how does a coach get fired this fast? It wasn't really one game. Lamouchi was appointed only in January and won just one of his five matches in charge. ^[1] His side lost 5-0 to Belgium in a pre-tournament friendly, and reports said the presence of his son at the team's training camp had raised questions inside the federation. He had also dropped experienced players, leaving the job hanging by a thread before kickoff.

Lamouchi called the defeat "painful." "We are shooting ourselves in the foot, we are hurting ourselves," he said.

For Lamouchi personally, the pattern is brutal: a firing by Tunisia would be his third lost job in just over a year, after exits at two Saudi clubs. ^[2]

Tunisia sit bottom of Group F and face Japan next, then the Netherlands. The four-goal hole already complicates any path out of the group.

Sources

Primary source: Tunisia manager Sabri Lamouchi sacked after 5-1 World Cup loss to Sweden