Lucien Favre has paid the price for Borussia Dortmund’s poor form with the Swiss coach dismissed 24 hours after a humiliating 5-1 Bundesliga defeat at home to VfB Stuttgart.
Dortmund confirmed the dismissal which was first reported in the Bild paper on Sunday.
“I find it a real shame that our paths part here,” Favre told dpa.
“”We have two very successful years and have a team that could have also played a successful season by the end of the year.
“I’m as convinced of that as before.”
Favre was appointed Dortmund coach in summer 2018 but despite a 15-game unbeaten run to start his first campaign with a nine-point lead, the side faded and Bayern Munich were able to secure the title on the last day of the season.
And Bayern proved too strong also in the coronavirus-impacted 2019/20 season although Dortmund were runners-up once more.
Dortmund are fifth this term having lost three successive home games and only one in the last five has left them five points behind Bayern and RB Leipzig.
Favre also failed to secure a German Cup title for Dortmund with his team exiting in the third round of both his campaigns so far.
“It was hard for us to take this step,” sport director Michael Zorc told the club homepage. “At the same time, we are of the opinion that reaching our season goals is severely endangered by the recent negative trend and current constellation and therefore had to act.”
Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke added: “We are all very grateful to Lucien Favre for his excellent work in the past two-and-a-half years, in which he has been runner-up with the team twice.”
The 38-year-old assistant coach Edin Terzic will lead the team until theend of the season beginning with Tuesday’s away game at Werder Bremen.
Favre‘s contract was due to expire in summer but the threat of missing out on the lucrative Champions League reportedly prompted club bosses to act.
Dortmund have struggled for stability since the departure of two-time Bundesliga winning coach Juergen Klopp in 2015 with Thomas Tuchel, Peter Bosz, Peter Stoeger and Favre all occupying the bench since then.