Tigres coach Ricardo "Tuca" Ferretti will not be allowed to join the Mexican national team on a permanent basis, the coach said on Monday in an interview.
Ferretti is currently El Tri's interim head coach and left the door open to leaving the Liga MX club to take over Mexico earlier this month, but the Tigres bosses won't allow it.
"[Tigres president] Miguel Garza and Mr. Zambrano [owner of CEMEX] told me: 'You're not leaving, we want you to complete the three years we signed you for,'" said Ferretti on Monday in an interview with Fox Sports Mexico. "That's how it was."
Asked if there was any chance of Tigres changing their mind, Ferretti said he didn't think so and indicated that the deal for him to go as an interim while the federation looked for a new coach was clear from the start.
"[They said], 'Be calm, Tuca. You are a soldier here, you have a contract and you'll respect it,'" Ferretti said.
The 64-year-old added that the federation hadn't been up to visit Monterrey to try to convince Tigres to release the manager, with the Brazilian suggesting that even if they wanted to pay the release clause Tigres still may not accept.
The Mexican federation's president Yon de Luisa stated last Friday that they had interviewed 15 potential head coaches in person outside of Mexico and nine over the phone in order to find the right fit to replace Juan Carlos Osorio.
"We are enormously grateful to Ricardo Ferretti and Tigres for having lent us him," said De Luisa at an event last Friday.
"It's always a luxury to have people like Ricardo in the national team ranks and that has allowed us to continue with the process of evaluating and choosing.
That's what we are doing and there will surely be news in coming days."