Soccer-Zeman resigns as Cagliari coach as relegation looms
MILAN, April 21 (Reuters) - Zdenek Zeman has resigned as Cagliari coach, the club said on Tuesday, two days after a defeat to Napoli left their battle to avoid relegation from Serie A looking increasingly doomed. It is the second time Czech coach Zeman has left the club this season, having been replaced by Gianfranco Zola in December, before returning to the helm in March. Cagliari are second bottom in Serie A on 21 points, nine adrift of the safety zone, having failed to win a game since Zeman's return. A 3-0 defeat to Napoli at the weekend was their fourth successive reverse. "Cagliari announce that Zdenek Zeman has today resigned from his post as head coach of the first team," the club said in a brief statement on their website (www.cagliaricalcio.net). It is common for Italian clubs to re-hire men they have previously sacked, partly because rules ban coaches from working at more than one Serie A club per season. Cagliari visit Fiorentina on Sunday, with seven games of the season remaining. (Writing by Toby Davis in London,; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
