Nacional fires Bava, sporting directors resign after 1-0 loss to Racing

It only took one Sunday to tear down the entire chain of command. Nacional lost 1-0 to Racing and, with barely any time to process the result, the club decided to end Jorge Bava's run as coach. What came next was even more striking: hours later, Sebastian Eguren and Martin Liguera submitted their resignations from their posts as Sporting Director and Technical Secretary. Within a matter of hours, Nacional found itself without a coach and without much of the leadership that had been shaping the club's soccer project.

The club confirmed the news in a brief statement, the kind that leaves no room for interpretation: "Club Nacional de Football announces that Sebastian Eguren and Martin Liguera have resigned from their roles as Sporting Director and Technical Secretary of the Club. Their resignations were accepted by the President and the Board of Directors." The statement added the customary thanks "for the work done and the time dedicated to the institution during their tenure" and wished them success going forward.

Bava had joined at the end of March, replacing Jadson Viera, and led the team through 25 matches, posting 11 wins and 11 losses. Even numbers, not good enough to demand much, but not bad enough to justify a firm stand either. And the team's current standing didn't help his case: Nacional sits seventh in the Annual Table, with 11 wins and 10 losses in 23 matches, and along the way was eliminated from both the Copa Libertadores and the Sudamericana, the latter at the hands of Tigre.

The backing that wasn't enough

What's striking is that just weeks earlier, Eguren had publicly backed the project. It was on July 24, after the 3-0 loss to Tigre in the Sudamericana, when the then sporting director met with the board alongside Bava and made clear he had no plans for a change of direction.

There's no doubt that some of the decisions made have lost credibility. We remain just as convinced and just as determined that this will get better and things will improveSebastian Eguren

Things, however, did not improve. And that backing ended up dragging down the very man who gave it: Bava's exit took the supporting structure down with him.

A chair that keeps spinning

How many coaches can a club go through in three years? Nacional is about to answer that question with a tenth name since 2022. The list includes Ricardo Zielinski, Alvaro Gutierrez, Alvaro Recoba, Rafael Garcia, Martin Lasarte, Martin Liguera, Pablo Peirano, Jadson Viera and now, until this Sunday, Jorge Bava. A turnover rate that speaks for itself about the instability running through the tricolor bench.

The challenge now is twofold: find a coach who can give the project some continuity while also rebuilding the sporting department that's been left leaderless. Nacional needs to get that structure in order quickly if it wants the next cycle to last longer than the ones before it.