Diego Maradona dismissed as Argentina coach after AFA decide against contract renewal

Argentine legend leaves following disappointing World Cup campaign...

27 Jul 2010 22:42:00

By Daniel Sheppard

More On :  Argentina, Diego Armando Maradona
Diego Maradona - Argentina-Germany - World Cup 2010 (Getty Images)

Diego Maradona has been removed from his role as coach of Argentina’s national side following a meeting of the Argentinian Football Federation whereby a decision was made not to renew the former Napoli star's contract.

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Maradona had met with the AFA president Julio Grondona to discuss criticisms made of his coaching staff, specifically assistant Oscar Ruggeri, who had been targeted for his role in Argentina's World Cup demise.

The AFA had reportedly requested the removal of the assistant manager, along with numerous other backroom staff, but Maradona was seemingly unwilling to work with staff outside the team he had shaped during the past two years.

Criticism was also levelled at Maradona for his failure to achieve success with Argentina at the World Cup 2010 tournament in South Africa, despite the squad returning home to a heroes' welcome.

Following an unimpressive qualifying campaign, Argentina topped their World Cup group with three wins, but were heavily defeated 4-0 by Germany on July 3, crashing out of the World Cup at the quarter-finals stage.

The South Americans face the Republic of Ireland in a friendly on August 11, with a squad set to be announced in the coming days.

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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

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19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
19:24 BST
No, no, no. I'll have none of that Emile Heskey shouting anymore! Hello, it's me, it's me, it's that D-O-Y-L-E. Yes, I'm Joe Doyle, and I'll be here for all the reaction to that England game. First things first, how did everyone see that game? Good performance? A touch boring? Let me know on Twitter.
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