UPDATE 1-Soccer-Napoli sack coach Ancelotti after reaching Champions League last 16

Napoli sacked Carlo Ancelotti, one of Europe's most successful coaches, on Tuesday, three hours after the Serie A club beat Genk 4-0 to qualify for the Champions League round of 16 and end a nine-match winless run.

The club confirmed it had dismissed the 60-year-old coach, who has won domestic league titles in England, France, Germany and Italy, and the Champions League three times, in a statement on Twitter. "Napoli has decided to revoke the position of the first-team coach from Carlo Ancelotti," it read. "The relationship of friendship, esteem and mutual respect between the club, its president Aurelio De Laurentiis and Carlo Ancelotti remain intact."

The decision followed a tense few weeks at the club during which Ancelotti criticized a decision by De Laurentiis, Napoli's flamboyant owner, to confine the team to a training camp for a week. The players broke off the camp halfway through, refusing to stay in the hotel although they continued to train.

Ancelotti's dismissal had been widely predicted by the Italian media who said Napoli had lined up Gennaro Gattuso, fired by AC Milan at the end of last season, as his replacement. At the same time, Napoli, runners-up in Serie A for three of the last four seasons, suffered a slump in form which saw them drop to seventh in Serie A and out of the title race.

 

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