José Riga is a Belgian former football player and manager. He is currently the sporting director of URSL Visé.
Managerial career
In June 2012, he went to Qatar and joined the Aspire Academy. He gave his resignation at the beginning of 2013. In October 2013, he signed a contract with the Italian club AC Milan and joined the youth teams’ technical staff. Together with Michel Bruyninckx, José Riga has been committed to improving the training concepts for the players, in particular with his CogiTraining method. Today, José Riga keeps collaborating with the CogiTraining / SenseBall team in particular in order to implement the CogiTraining method in the specific competitive environment of a professional first team.
Riga was appointed as manager of Charlton Athletic on 11 March 2014, one day after the sacking of their previous manager, Chris Powell, who had been dismissed when the club owner and Powell were unable to reach agreement over the long-term vision for the club. At the time Charlton were fourth from bottom of The Championship. Riga was appointed the manager with a contract which lasted until the end of the 2013–14 season; the main task was to secure Championship football for Charlton. This was achieved on 29 April 2014 following a 3-1 home win against Watford.
On 3 June 2014 it was reported that Riga had agreed to a deal to become manager of Blackpool, and was set to start the following week. The following day, Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston confirmed that there was a verbal agreement in place. On 11 June Riga was confirmed as Blackpool's new manager. Three weeks later, newspaper reports claimed that Riga was unsettled and ready to quit Blackpool. Whilst the club and Riga did not comment, no coaching staff had been appointed and even though the club had just seven contracted players, no signings had been made. With so few players, no assistant or backroom staff appointed, and the squad due to report back on 30 June, Riga had to delay the start of pre-season training. On 9 July it was confirmed that, with still just eight players at the club, Riga had three backroom staff, all of whom had agreed to start working the previous week but had still not signed contracts. Two days later it was stated that tensions were high at the club, and between Riga and Karl Oyston. On 17 July, having already cancelled a pre-season trip to Spain to focus on signings, it was claimed that Riga's future was even more uncertain following reports of a dispute with Oyston over transfer policy. Two days later Blackpool played a friendly away against Northern League Division One side Penrith, fielding five triallists in the starting line-up with two more on the substitutes bench and with just six fit registered players, the rest of the match day squad was made up of youth team players. Riga was given a standing ovation by the Blackpool fans. Then after the match it was reported that when the media requested to speak with Riga, he had told his staff and players not to give any interviews. Having won only one of fifteen games in charge, Riga was sacked by Blackpool on 27 October 2014, becoming the club's second shortest-serving manager in their history, behind Michael Appleton.
On 2 February 2015, Riga returned to Standard Liège in Belgium, where he was re-appointed as manager following Ivan Vukomanović's departure. He took charge of his first game on 6 February 2015, a league match against Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz, which ended in a 3–0 win for Standard. Towards the end of the season, Riga announced he would not be prolonging his contract with Standard. Slavoljub Muslin was announced as his successor on 5 June 2015.
Return to Charlton Athletic
On 14/01/2016, Riga was appointed head coach of Charlton Athletic for the second time. His first win came away at Rotherham United in a 1-4 victory. Following the relegation he left the club and was replaced by Russell Slade.
