CABINDA, Angola, (Reuters) – African teams must put  more trust in their managers to succeed at the highest level,  Ivory Coast coach Vahid Halilhodzic said yesterday.

The Bosnian is unbeaten in his last 23 matches in charge of  the Elephants, who have not lost a competitive game since he  took over in 2008, but he still feels a lot of pressure.

“After we drew 0-0 against Burkina Faso, I had the feeling  people were looking at me like I was a terrorist,” he said  before a training session in Cabinda where his team face Algeria  in an African Nations Cup quarter-final on Sunday.

Halilhodzic, who burst into the limelight as a coach in  Europe when he took French side Lille from the second division  to a place in the Champions League group stage in 2002, believes  coaches should be trusted more in Africa.

Asked when his contract with World Cup-bound Ivory Coast  expires, he said: “In Africa, there is no such thing as a  contract. You lose one game and you’re fired.

“The problem with African teams is that they don’t trust the  coaches, so it is hard to achieve something over a long cycle,”  he added. “If you win, the coach doesn’t exist. The praise goes to the  players or the officials.” However, Halilhodzic, whose previous experience in Africa  includes an African Champions League title with Raja Casablanca  in his only season with the Moroccan club, said the Ivory Coast  players were responsive to his methods. A fearsome coach able to bring the best out of his players  with a strict regime, the 57-year-old former Yugoslavia striker  said he was happy about his time in charge of the Elephants.     “Usually, when you start with a team you gather the players  and tell them what the rules are going to be. They all say ‘yes,  yes, yes’ but in fact it’s ‘no, no, no’,” he explained. “With Ivory Coast the players themselves asked for those  rules and we now have an internal code. Everyone abides by it.