2008 Beijing - Serbia coach Clemente fired for Euro failure

BELGRADE, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Serbian FA (FSS) has fired the national soccer team coach Javier Clemente on Thursday after the Spaniard failing to steer his team to the Euro 2008 finals.

"The results are always the final barometer of whether someone has been successful or not and we have made the decision not to extend Clemente's contract expiring on December 31," said the FSS president Zvezdan Terzic.

"Clemente himself said he didn't want to carry on unless he had unanimous support from the FSS, the fans and the media, which he doesn't although only a few people wanted him out," Terzic added.

The 57-year-old Clemente had dropped many ageing players from the side that lost all three matches at last year's World Cup in Germany.

His team, however, finished third in qualifying Group A behind Poland and 2004 finalists Portugal.

Serbia now faces an uphill task to qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals after being drawn in Group 7 with 2006 finalists France and neighbour Romania.