The Executive Committee of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) dismissed the head coach of the national team, Fernando Santos, on September 8.
Medianews.az reports that Portuguese Fernando Santos was appointed head coach of the national team on June 12, 2024. He had signed a contract with AFFA until 2027.
Born in 1954, Fernando Santos was a defender for Portuguese teams "Estoril" and "Marítimo" and has coached clubs such as "Estoril", "Estrela", "Porto", "Sporting", "Benfica" (Portugal), AEK, "Panathinaikos", PAOK (Greece), "Beşiktaş" (Turkey) as well as national teams of Greece, Portugal, and Poland.
Medianews.az recalls that under Fernando Santos's leadership, the Azerbaijani national team did not win a single game out of 11. In the group stage of the 2024-2025 UEFA Nations League season, the team earned only 1 point in 6 matches and was relegated from League C to League D. The team managed to secure only 1 point from 4 friendly matches as well.
On September 5, as the selection phase for the 2026 World Cup started, the national team lost away to Iceland with a score of 0:5.
The national team is ranked 122nd among 210 teams in the FIFA ranking.
Participating in international tournaments since 1994, the Azerbaijani national team finished last in the group in four European Championship qualifying phases and ended up second to last in the other four.
In the qualifying rounds of four World Cups, the team finished last in the group once, second to last twice, and third from bottom once.
The national team was a group runner-up once in UEFA Nations League League D and placed third once, second once, and fourth (last) once in League C.
Previously, the national team was led by Éləkbər Məmmədov, Ağasəlim Mircavadov, Kazbek Tuayev, Vaqif Sadıqov, Əhməd Ələsgərov, İqor Ponomaryov, Əsgər Abdullayev, Karlos Alberto Torres, Şahin Diniyev, Berti Vogts, Robert Prosinečki, Qurban Qurbanov, Nikola Yurčević, and Gianni De Biasi.
Toğrul Ali,
Medianews.az
