Football
PA Sport 9y

Gianluca Festa hired as Cagliari coach after Zdenek Zeman resigns

Cagliari have appointed Gianluca Festa as their new head coach, the Serie A club announced on Wednesday.

Festa, 46,takes over from Zdenek Zeman, who resigned on Tuesday following the team's poor run of form.

A statement from Cagliari read: "Gianluca Festa has been appointed as the coach of the first team until the end of the season."

Zeman started the campaign in charge of Cagliari but was dismissed during the winter break and replaced by Gianfranco Zola.

Zola lasted just three months before he was fired in March, with the club then deciding to re-appoint Zeman.

Festa, a former Middlesbrough and Cagliari player, inherits a team who are 19th in the standings and nine points adrift of safety with seven games remaining.

Sunday's 3-0 home defeat to Napoli was Cagliari's seventh loss in their last eight league games.

The Cagliari-born Festa had been out of a job since being sacked by third division side Lumezzane in March 2013.

Festa has no experience of being a first-team head coach in Serie A, but was assistant to Giorgio Melis at Cagliari for a brief spell in 2010 before taking over the Sardinian club's reserve team for the following two campaigns.

His first game in charge will be at Fiorentina on Sunday.

Cagliari have not won since a 2-1 home triumph over Sassuolo on Jan. 24.

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