Dutch football club ADO Den Haag on Tuesday fired coach Zeljko Petrovic due to a series of bad results, following which it lies in the 16th spot of the Eredivisie league.
"We have the idea that the players group needed anything else and in our conversation it became clear that our coach mostly agreed with us," Jeffrey van As, only appointed as manager football affairs three weeks ago, said in a statement, according to Xinhua news agency.
The 51-year-old Montenegrin coach Petrovic started last summer as successor of Henk Fraser, who left for Vitesse. He is the first coach fired in the 2016-17 Eredivisie season, the highest Dutch football division. Assistant Ekrem Kahya will take over his job for now.
ADO dropped to the current 16th position in the Eredivisie, which would mean playing relegation play-offs by the end of the season. After a good start with 10 points from the first four matches, the club from The Hague only collected seven points from the last 17 matches.
"It is a difficult decision," said general director Mattijs Manders. "Zeljko has been working for some time with a small squad and had lots of bad luck with injuries. In addition, there was a lot of unrest surrounding the club."
--IANS
pur/vt