President of Ligue 1 club ruthlessly announces coach's dismissal live on TV after rout | Football

Montpellier president Laurent Nicollin shocked viewers by publicly announcing the sacking of coach Michel Der Zakarian live following Sunday’s 5-0 humiliation against Marseille. The Ligue 1 strugglers’ dismal campaign worsened in front of a furious crowd at the Stade de la Mosson, but the biggest fireworks exploded after the game ended.

Montpellier are bottom of the French top flight, losing six of their first eight matches and conceding an impressive 26 goals.

La Paillade’s latest nightmare came this weekend when Marseille rebelled to move three points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain at the top of the league.

Elye Wahi’s first-minute goal set the tone, before Amine Harit and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored the second and third goals in the first half.

Former Manchester United striker Mason Greenwood completed a devastating counter-attack to make it 4-0 after 15 minutes.

And Luis Henrique completed the scoring, scoring the fifth in the 73rd minute, which spelled doom for Der Zakarian.

His dismissal comes as no surprise given Montpellier’s disastrous fortunes at the start of the 2024/25 campaign.

That said, no one would have predicted that club president Nicollin would be in front of live TV cameras and breaking the news of his decision to the world. But that’s what he did.

Speaking to DAZN France, Nicollin explained: “We cannot change 25 players, so unfortunately I took the initiative to stop Michel tonight.

“We talked in the locker room after the game. I told him this night would be over.

The 51-year-old also aimed fire at the Montpellier players, suggesting it was their fault he was forced to take such drastic measures.

“And I told the players that, thanks to their excellent work, they fired the coach and that they need to take on their responsibilities next week against Toulouse,” Nicollin added.

Der Zakarian, 61, originally took charge of Montpellier from 2017 to 2021, overseeing 161 matches with a winning record of 39 percent.

After a 16-month stint as coach of Stade Brestois, he returned to the club in February last year and remained under contract until next summer.

Montpellier’s 5-0 rout of Marseille was his 200th Ligue 1 game in charge of the club and his last, having won just one of his last 10 games from the bench.

Der Zakarian became the first Ligue 1 manager to be sacked this season. Few, if any, here will be as explosive.