FRANCE98 – Tunisia Team Page

5th Qualifier
Confederation: C.A.F. (Africa)

Size: 164,150 kmē

Population: 8,400,000

Capital: Tunis

Main cities: Bizerte, Sfax, Sousse

System of government: Lay Republic

Head of State: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

Currency: Dinar

Time difference: 1 hour ahead of Paris

1st round Africa zone:

02/06/1996 Rwanda – Tunisia 1-2

16/06/1996 Tunisia – Rwanda 2-0

2nd round:

10/11/1996 Liberia – Tunisia 0-1

12/01/1997 Tunisia – Egypt 1-0

05/04/1997 Namibia – Tunisia 1-2

27/04/1997 Tunisia – Liberia 2-0

08/06/1997 Egypt – Tunisia 0-0

17/08/1997 Tunisia – Namibia 4-0

1st in Group 2:

13 points

6 goals scored

1 goal conceded

A typical line-up during the qualifiers:

Goalkeeper: EL OUAER (age 31 – 50 caps)

Defenders: BADRA (age 26 – 13 caps) BOUKADIDA (age 29 – 27 caps) CHOUCHANE (age 24 – 15 caps)

TRABELSI (age 29 – 30 caps)

Mid-field: GHOBANE (age 21 – 16 caps) BOUAZIZI (age 25 – 14 caps) BEYA (age 25 – 32 caps)

SOUAYAH (age 25 – 21 caps)

Strikers: SELLIMI (age 24 – 54 caps)
BEN SLIMANE (age 23 – 21 caps)

Number of players used during the qualifying rounds: 29

National team colours: Red and white

FIFA ranking (on 16 October 1997): 24th

World Cup: Participated once in a World Cup finals competition (1978 in Argentina – knocked out in the first round).

African Nations Cup: Participated 7 times (finalist twice, in 1965 against Ghana, 2- 3 after extra-time, and in 1996 against South Africa, 0-2).

Olympic Games: Participated 3 times (1960, 1988 and 1996) Knocked out 3 times in the first round.

Henryk KASPERCZAK
was a key element in the great Polish team of the 1970’s. He played in the 1974 World Cup in Germany when Poland finished third, and again in 1978 in Argentina when Poland reached the quarter-finals. In the same year he came to play in France for Metz, where he went on to begin his coaching career, winning the French Cup with Metz in 1984. He later coached a number of different French teams (including Saint-Etienne, Strasbourg, Matra Racing, Montpellier and Lille). In November 1993 he signed a five-month contract with the Ivory Coast national team, which he led to the semi-finals of the African Nations Cup in 1994. His talents were noticed by the Tunisian football authorities and on 1 June 1994 he became the National Team Coach. And his skills have evidently paid dividends, because he has led Tunisia to its first World Cup finals in twenty years.