Morocco unveil Renard as coach

Frenchman Herve Renard has won the Africa Cup of Nations twice

Former Ivory Coast boss Herve Renard has been appointed as the new coach of Morocco on a three-year deal, replacing Badou Zaki.

Renard led Ivory Coast to the Africa Cup of Nations title in 2015, three years after winning it with Zambia.

After his Nations Cup victory with the Elephants Renard left to take over at French club Lille in May but was sacked in November.

Zaki left as coach of the Atlas Lions by mutual consent on 10 February.

As well as the full national team the Morocco football federation have announced that Renard will coach the one for locally-based players and oversee the Olympic side.

He has been set the targets of reaching the semi-finals of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon as well as qualifying for the World Cup a year later in Russia.

Renard will have two assistants, one is his long-time deputy Patrice Baumel and the other is the former Morocco international Mustapha Hadji.

Their first competitive games will be home and away Nations Cup qualifiers against Cape Verde at the end of March.

The two sides are currently top of Group F having won both their matches so far, Libya and Sao Tome are the other teams in the pool.

The Atlas Lions have also progressed to the final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

BBC Sport