Prague - The Czech Football Association (FA) sacked national team coach Petr Rada on Wednesday after a string of poor results and also expelled six players for a breach of discipline after the World Cup qualifying loss at home to Slovakia last week.
Rada last year replaced Karel Brueckner, who led Czech Republic to the Euro 2004 semi-finals.
They are fourth in World Cup qualifying Group Three with eight points from six matches, trailing leaders Northern Ireland by five points with a game in hand.
The Czechs lost 2-1 at home to Slovakia on April 1 - their first defeat by the former federation partner and a result that seriously dented their chances of reaching the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
"We reached an agreement with Petr Rada to terminate the cooperation and he promised to draft an analysis of the current state of the Club," Club chair Pavel Mokrý said.
Further, it was the lack of discipline of the national team players that played a role in dismissing Rada. Following the lost match to Slovakia, some of the players went to a "party" to one of Prague restaurants.
As a consequence forwards Milan Baroš, Martin Fenin, Václav Sverkoš and midfielders Radoslav Kováč and Marek Matějovský and defender Tomas Ujfaluši have been banned from the national team. The ban may be temporarily, though. It is possible that the new coach will want all of them back.
