The hiring and firing of Javier Aguirre has left the Japan Football Association with a severe bloody nose, but it remains to be seen if anyone at the governing body will pay for it.
The JFA pulled the plug on Aguirre's time as national team manager last Tuesday after a match-fixing case naming the Mexican as a defendant was accepted by a Spanish court. JFA president Kuniya Daini reasoned that the risk of the case having a negative impact on Japan's 2018 World Cup qualifiers was too great to ignore, and sent Aguirre on his way after only six months and 10 games in charge.
Aguirre's dismissal met with few dissenting voices, but the JFA's handling of the whole affair came in for ferocious criticism.
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