London, July 26 (ANI): The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has sacked national team coach Sergio Batista after his team was knocked out of the Copa America tournament in the quarter-finals nine days ago.
"The national teams commission has decided to rescind the contract," AFA spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo told reporters in Buenos Aires.
Bialo also said Argentina's August 10 friendly against Romania in Bucharest has been cancelled and added that coaching staff of Argentina teams at all levels are under evaluation by the national teams commission.
"There are no deadlines, there's no rush, no urgency (to name a new coach) so there will be a process of consideration and study," he said.
National teams director Carlos Bilardo, who as coach steered Argentina to their second World Cup triumph in Mexico in 1986, has also come under scrutiny and risks losing his job, the Independent reports.
There had been mounting media pressure for the AFA to make a decision to rescue Argentina from years of underachievement with Batista in the eye of the storm after AFA board members questioned his capacity for the job.
Batista, 48, had been in charge for a year, initially in an interim capacity after predecessor Diego Maradona was refused a new contract following Argentina's quarter-final elimination at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
His contract was to take him to the end of the South American qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil with Batista vowing to build a team around Lionel Messi, the world's best player, to win the title. (ANI)
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