Chivas fires sporting director Ricardo Pelaez after exiting Liga MX playoffs early
Chivas wine terminated the contract of sporting director Ricardo Pelaez after a 5-4 loss on penalties Puebla in the first round of the Liga MX knockout round.
Current Chivas manager Ricardo Cadena will remain on the board for the time being.
Pelaez made the announcement on Tuesday following a conversation with the Chivas office.
“[Ownership] “I completely agree with this decision,” Pelaez said. Why? Because changing coaches or changing three or four players is not enough. I came here looking for a solution and in the end I couldn’t do it… I came here to bring trophies and I didn’t.”
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“We would like to thank Ricardo for his work and dedication to his role in the club from November 2019 to today,” Chivas said. said in a statement. “It was clear to us that the project stalled in terms of team performance and outcomes, and therefore needed to change its leadership.”
Chivas owner Amaury Vergara’s brother-in-law, Alejandro Manzo, will move into the role of sporting director. Manzo is the group’s general secretary and board member.
A goalscorer and striker for Chivas in the late 1990s, Pelaez was appointed sporting director in November 2019.
Despite joining the league’s giants with the second-highest total of Liga MX titles with 12 – just one behind rival Club America – Chivas failed to reach the Liga MX final. since their title in Clausura 2017.
After problems at the 2022 first tournament, Pelaez and the club sacked coach Marcel Michel Leano. Cadena, who started as an interim and later earned the title of permanent coach, replaced Leano for the ongoing Apertura.
Chivas has struggled in recent months and limped into the play-ins of Liguilla with a 5W-7D-5L record as the ninth club in the standings.
Against Puebla last Sunday in the first round of the season, Chivas finished with a 1-1 draw in allotment time before being knocked out 5-4 in the penalty shootout that followed, denying it. them a place in the 8th round final of Liguilla.
“As a coach, I accept that we failed to find, for the intent of the least, that we had planned at the beginning of the tournament, which is to qualify. [for the quarterfinals]”, Cadena said at the post-match press conference. In that sense, we failed. “