South Korea sacks head coach Uli Stielike after the team’s World Cup qualifying defeat to Qatar on Wednesday.
According to Yonhap News, the Korea Football Association (KFA) said it decided to part ways with Stielike following a technical committee meeting at the National Football Center in Paju, North of Seoul at 2 p.m on Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference at the NFC, Lee Yong-soo, the KFA technical committee chief, said the governing body decided to terminate Stielike’s contract on mutual consent.
“Since Stielike became the head coach in 2014, he worked hard to develop South Korea’s football environment, educate football instructors, while posting a good result at the Asian Cup (in 2015),” said Lee. “But we thought he failed to deliver the results that we wanted in the final qualifying stage.”
The former Germany midfielder has already been under pressure after two defeats in four qualifiers, which have put the country’s hopes of automatic qualification for World Cup finals in jeopardy.
The Taegeuk Warriors are still in second place, the last automatic qualifying spot, but only one point ahead of Uzbekistan with two matches remaining.