Crisis-torn Sparta under pressure to sack coach

HEARTS' UEFA Cup opponents Sparta Prague sacked head coach Stanislav Griga today just two weeks before they are due at Murrayfield in the UEFA Cup.

Griga won just two of Sparta's opening five Gambrinus Liga fixtures this season, a sequence which sees them sitting ninth in the table, and has been made to pay the price with his job.

The club's owners, Slovakian financial group J&T, had been less than enamoured by the manager's performance and pressurised president Jozef Chovanec to act swiftly after their 3-0 humbling at Mlada Boleslav on Sunday, a match which was witnessed in person by Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanauskas.

Chovanec finally dispensed with 45-year-old Griga at lunchtime today, less than a year after he took charge to lead Sparta to a fifth-place finish in the league and a UEFA Cup berth after winning the Czech Cup.

Sparta spokesman Jan Hala said: "It was a really complicated situation because Mr Griga started with Sparta Prague last year when the club was in crisis. The president and the owners believed that he would learn the ways of the club and adapt to the situation.

"But the team is not playing well this season. The president didn't want to change the coach but maybe it was the only solution. We will know tomorrow what the new management situation is."

Chovanec, a former national coach of the Czech Republic who played for Sparta in the 1990s, may opt to temporarily take charge of the team himself, although supporters at the Toyota Arena are heavily in favour of a return for their celebrated former coach Franta Straka.

Meanwhile, Ivanauskas remains grateful for this week's international break as he focuses on returning some key players to full fitness. Portuguese centre-back Jose Goncalves is still some way off a return but strikers Roman Bednar and Michal Pospisil should be fit for the SPL resumption against St Mirren on Saturday week.

In addition, Ivanauskas believes a change of environment for those on international duty will help to re-invigorate his squad for the domestic challenges ahead.

"This break has come at a very good time for Hearts," said Ivanauskas. "We have time to get our injured players fit and psychologically it's important. Our players have heard me telling them week after week that we must get three points, now they can go away and have a break and listen to someone else in a different atmosphere.

"A change of surroundings and a change of pressure will help them because there has been big pressure at Hearts recently. It is positive pressure now so I want the boys to come back without injuries and with smiles on their faces."

Taken from the Scotsman