Bulgaria sack national football team coach

Sofia, Nov 21: The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) fired the national team coach Lyuboslav Penev, five days after a disappointing draw at home against Malta in a qualifying round for the European Championship 2016.

Borislav Mihaylov, president of BFU, told a press conference Thursday that last year the team did not perform well and almost lost chance to qualify, reports Xinhua.

In their other three matches in Group H, Bulgaria beat Azerbaijan but lost to Croatia and Norway and now rank fourth in the group.

"Surely, the players were to be blamed but the coach should have influenced them in some way," Mihaylov said.

Nasko Sirakov, member of BFU executive committee, added that very serious cardinal changes would be carried out at all levels.

The 48-year-old Penev took charge as coach in 2011 and recorded nine wins, seven draws and eight losses in 24 matches.