The Africa Cup of Nations hosts Equatorial Guinea have dismissed their manager Andoni Goikoetxea just over three weeks before the tournament, plunging their preparations into chaos.
Goikoetxea departed on Thursday after the election of a president for theEquatorial Guinea football federation last week.
The new president Andres Jorge Mbomio confirmed the sacking of the former Spain international, who had been in charge for the past two years, but gave no reasons.
Goikoetxea, who was a tough-tackling defender dubbed the Butcher of Bilbao, tweeted a thank you note to players “for their work and many good results”.
Failure in a recent regional competition for Equatorial Guinea plus defeat in two warm-up games in Portugal last week are likely to have hastened his departure.
Equatorial Guinea stepped in as emergency hosts of the tournament in place of Morocco last month and its team have been preparing in Portugal where they lost to fourth-tier Vilafranquense and Benfica’s B team.
The hosts play Congo in the opening game of the 16-team tournament in Bata on 17 January.