The French manager of Betar Jerusalem football team sensationally quit on Saturday night after an embarrassing loss to last placed Hapoel Kfar Saba.

Luis Fernandez, who has only been at Betar for a few months, said he had had enough of the Jerusalem fans disrespecting him and will leave at the end of the season.

And in an interview published in an Israeli daily newspaper on Monday, Fernandez said he was not going to change his mind and will take up one of the "many offers" he has had in Europe.

Fernandez flew to France straight after the game against Kfar Saba and has not yet returned.

New impetus

Fernandez was brought to the holy city in November by new Betar owner, Russian billionaire businessman Arkadi Gaydamak.

Initially Gaydamak said Fernandez would act only as an overseer of the club and Dutchman Ton Caanen, who had been put in charge of first team affairs a couple of weeks earlier, would continue as head coach.

But tensions between Caanen and Fernandez were clearly strained and in December Fernandez decided he wanted to have complete control of the team so Caanen left.

Since then Fernandez has bought five new players, including Frenchmen Fabrice Fernandes and Jerome Leroy, but results have been mixed. Some weeks the team would perform splendidly and win easily while others they would struggle against much lesser teams.

The loss to Kfar Saba had followed a respectable draw away at Hapoel Tel Aviv and two impressive victories over current champions Maccabi Haifa and Arab team Bnei Sakhnin.

But only a few weeks earlier the team had been easily beaten in the State Cup by lowly Hakoach Ramat Gan, something the supporters had not forgotten.

Saturday’s result upset the thousands of loyal Betar fans, who have not built up a good relationship with Fernandez as they did with Caanen. By the end of the game the fans were collectively chanting “Embarrasment” and applauding the passes of the visiting team rather than their own.

Progressive manager

Even though Betar is currently in third place, the same position as when Caanen left three months ago, Fernandez insisted he has moved the club forward.

And the former Paris Saint Germain and Espanyol coach said he has never experience such strong cursing and diserespect from fans in Spain or France.

“In France and Spain... they always respected me and helped me because they knew that I was making an effort,” Fernandez told Yediot Aharonot.

“Its true that not all the fans cursed me, but there were many bad fans at the game. They enjoyed in my loss of respect and this isn’t a nice thing in my eyes. Betar needs to be a strong team but the people don’t help me at all.

“That the fans shout embarrassment does not help the team. The fans need to help the team but they shout ’ole’ to our opponents.”

Speaking like a child, Fernandez added that the fans will see “a new Luis” at the home game against Bnei Yehuda on Saturday where he will hide away from the fans and not speak to anyone before or after the game.