Sunday at the 2026 FIFA World Cup saw a quartet of matches, including two with lopsided outcomes; Germany defeating Curacao 7–1, and Sweden beating Tunisia 5–1. Though the Tunisians did not receive the day’s worst loss, they will have to adjust to playing under a new head coach going forward.
That’s because the Tunisian Football Federation fired their coach, Sabri Lamouchi, just hours after the defeat, though it labeled his departure a “mutual decision.”
“The Tunisian Football Federation announces the termination of its contractual relationship with Head Coach Sabri Lamouchi by mutual agreement and wishes him every success in his future professional endeavors,” the federation said in a statement.
Hervé Renard is the new man in charge of Tunisia, and it’s not as if he was an assistant or has familiarity with the squad, as he was sitting on the sideline after recently getting sacked himself. Renard last coached the Saudi Arabian National Team and helped them qualify for the 2026 World Cup. However, Renard was fired in April 2026, the second time he was fired by the national team. He also coached them from 2019–2023, with a stint with the French Women’s National Team in between.
There had been reports of unrest within the locker room of Tunisia, which seemed to manifest itself on the field in the team’s opener against Sweden. Tunisia allowed a goal seven minutes into the game and was down 2–0 at the 30-minute mark before getting onto the scoreboard late in the first half.
Though down 2–1 at the start of the second half, you would think that the Tunisians had some momentum after that late first half goal. But things fell apart after intermission, as Tunisia allowed another three goals, with Yasin Ayari finishing with a brace in scoring the first and last goals of the match. Tunisia had just two shots on goal all match, committed twice as many offsides as Sweden, and picked up the match’s lone booking with a yellow card for Rani Khedira.
Tunisia entered the 2026 FIFA World Cup at No. 56 in FIFA rankings, the lowest in their group. Sweden is at No. 35, while Tunisia’s remaining group stage opponents are even higher. The Tunisians will face Japan, who are No. 17, on Saturday, before then taking on No. 8 Netherlands on June 25.
Lamouchi’s stint with Tunisia lasted all of five matches after he was hired in January 2026. The team had already qualified for this year’s World Cup before his hiring, and they played in four friendly matches prior to the tournament kicking off. While Lamouchi won his debut, a 1–0 victory over Canada, it was all downhill from there.
Tunisia and Canada played to a scoreless draw three days after the former had beaten the Canadians. The squad then took part in a final pair of friendlies used as tune-up matches before the World Cup. On June 1, Austria defeated Tunisia 1–0 before Belgium then ran all over the Tunisians 5–0 in a June 6 send-off match.
With the World Cup opening match loss to Sweden, Lamouchi notched just one victory over his five matches as head coach, finishing with a 1-1-3 record.
Tunisia is the ninth team that Lamouchi led as head coach and the second national team after managing Ivory Coast at the start of his coaching career.
Born in France, Lamouchi got into coaching in 2012 after a 20-year playing career across France, Italy, and Qatar. He also played in a dozen games with the French National Team alongside the likes of Zinedine Zidane and France’s current head coach, Didier Deschamps.
The decision to move on from Lamouchi suggests that the Tunisian Football Federation has high hopes for this World Cup squad, despite an underwhelming history at this tournament. This is Tunisia’s seventh World Cup appearance, and they are still looking to see the knockout stage for the first time. Including the Sweden contest, they’ve played 19 World Cup matches, winning just three of those, drawing five times, and losing 11.
Lamouchi isn’t the first coach to get fired in the midst of a World Cup, nor is he even the first Tunisian manager to get sacked during World Cup play. At the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Tunisia suffered a 2–0 defeat to England in its opening match before falling 1–0 to Colombia in its second match.
The Tunisian Football Federation then decided to make a change with one group stage match remaining. Then-manager Henryk Kasperczak, who had led Tunisia to a runner-up at the 1996 African Cup of Nations, was replaced with assistant Ali Selmi for the final group stage match. Selmi managed to secure a point as Tunisia played to a 1–1 draw with Romania.
