Maldives' football coach terminated following poor results in SAG 2019
Segrt joined as head coach in March 2018
Petar Segrt, former Head Coach for the Maldives National Football team
Petar Segrt, head coach of the Maldives' National football team, has been removed from his position following unsatisfactory results from the South Asian Games 2019.
His dismissal was announced via Twitter on Saturday by President of Football Association of Maldives (FAM), Bassam Adeel Jaleel.
According to the announcement, FAM and Petar came to a mutual agreement to dissolve his contract "effective immediately". They go on to wish him success in the future while thanking him for his contributions.
Segrt's dismissal comes shortly after the Maldives National Football team had to end their journey in the ongoing South Asian Games 2019 after failing to win any matches in the tournament.
Though they entered the competition aiming for gold, the team ended up leaving the tournament barehanded with the lowest performance ever seen from a national team.
In this competition, Maldives faced off with SriLanka in the first match which ended in a tie. While the second match with Bangladesh also ended in a draw, the Maldives went on to lose to both Bhutan and Nepal in their next matches.
When Segrt was appointed as the team's head coach last year on March 24th, he expressed his aim to bring changes to the Maldives football scene.
As such, the team won the 2018 SAFF Suzuki Championship under his tenure.
Segrt has faced criticism for his decision to remove the team's captain and local football icon, Ali Ashfaq, from the squad after he failed to appear for a press conference. Since the incident, Segrt has given contradictory statements on separate occasions regarding the issue to the media.
While Segrt took on the role of head coach with the aim of qualifying for the Asian Cup, the Maldives has only won two matches so far. The Maldives is ranked fourth in its respective group, with Syria ranked number one.
