Zinedine Zidane banned from coaching Real Madrid Castilla for three months as he doesn't have the right qualifications

Zidane only has a Level 2 when he needs a Level 3

Tom Sheen
Monday 27 October 2014 14:26 EDT
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Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Zidane (Getty Images)

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Football great Zinedine Zidane has been banned from coaching for three months because he does not have the necessary qualifications.

The World Cup winner, currently in charge of Real Madrid Castilla (the B team), was banned by the Competition Committee Judge on Monday morning.

The same sentence was given to Santiago Sanchez, who Real Madrid had named as their coach in an effort to spare Zidane.

Zidane was reported to the committee by Miguel Galan, representative for Spanish Coaches and head of the National Centre for Developing Coaches, who noted that the former Juventus and Real Madrid star was acting as coach without the necessary Level 3 qualification demanded by authorites.

He currently has a Uefa A Licence, equivalent to a Level 2. The 42-year-old had previously complained at the treatment he has received over the matter.

"I have no regrets about having taken my qualifications in France," Zidane told Le Figaro. "It's still amazing that there are also so few people to defend me and explain that I did not have special privilege.

"I did not circumvent the difficulty - but some took the opportunity to spit on me."

Real Madrid now have 10 working days to lodge an appeal with the Competition Committee’s appeals tribunal. The case could also be taken to Spain’s Administrative Court for Sport, or to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as a last resort.

Zidane won numerous individual awards including the Ballon d'Or in 1998 and FIFA World Player of the Year three times.

He won three League titles for Juventus and Real Madrid and the Champions League for the Spanish club in 2002, as well as the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with France.

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