Struggling Palmeiras have sacked Brazil World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari on Thursday.
Scolari may have helped Palmeiras pick up the Copa do Brazil earlier this year but his side have suffered a bleak run in the Brazil Serie A in recent times, winning just one of their past eight games to find themselves in 19th on the table, seven points adrift of relegation safety.
A 3-1 loss to fourth-placed Vasco Da Gama on Wednesday proved the last straw for Palmeiras football director Cesar Sampiao, who instigated a meeting on Thursday that saw 63-year-old Scolari dumped as coach.
Immediately after the loss to Vasco, Scolari, who led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup, said he had no intention of quitting from his position.
The idea of quitting has not crossed my mind, he was quoted as saying on Sambafoot.
We have to sit down, chew it over and see what we can do differently.
But the meeting on Thursday opted to end Scolari s second stint at the club after 26 months in charge.
A statement on the club s website read: After a meeting on Thursday afternoon between the president, director of football and technical committee of Palmeiras, it was mutually decided to terminate the contract between the coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and the club. Along with Scolari, assistant coach Flavio Murtosa also leaves the club.
Combined with his first period at the club from 1997 to 2000, Scolari leaves Palmeiras having coached 407 games for 192 victories, 111 draws and 104 losses.
Along with coaching Brazil in 2002, Scolari also coached Portugal to the European Cup final in 2004, the 2006 World Cup semi-finals and the quarter-finals at Euro 2008 before a short-lived spell at Chelsea during the 2008-09 season.
