Gazzaev tenders Russia resignation

'Resignation accepted'
"Koloskov accepted his resignation," Russian Football Union (RFU) spokesman Andrei Tarabrin said, in a reference to the RFU president, Viacheslav Koloskov. The identity of the country's new coach is expected to be known in the next few weeks. Gazzaev's assistant coach Alexander Borodyuk, a former Soviet international, has been tipped as a potential successor.

Romantsev replacement
Gazzaev, 49, replaced Oleg Romantsev as national coach in July last year following Russia's FIFA World Cup elimination. After presiding over an excellent start to the country's UEFA EURO 2004™ campaign - including a 4-2 win against the Republic of Ireland - defeats against Albania and Georgia have left Russia third in Group 10, five points behind leaders Switzerland and three behind Ireland, with three matches remaining.

CSKA loss
Earlier this month Gazzaev, who also coaches Russian Premier League leaders PFC CSKA Moskva, saw CSKA knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the second qualifying round by F.Y.R. Macedonia's FK Vardar.

'Lacking any will to win'
After last night's loss against the Israelis, Gazzaev said: "It was a shameful, disgusting performance by our team tonight. The players were totally lacking any will to win, so I told them in the locker room, 'If you play like that I'm no longer your coach'."

Time to think
Regarding a potential replacement, Koloskov said: "Only Borodyuk comes to mind at the moment. He has worked with this team but I still need to think about it and discuss it with a few people. I do not know if it would have been better or worse but I regret that I allowed Gazzaev to coach Russia and his club last year."