Diego Maradona is out as Argentina’s soccer coach.
The Argentine Football Association said Tuesday it would not renew his contract. He had spent an erratic 21 months in charge of a national team that was eliminated in the World Cup quarterfinals with a 4-0 loss to Germany.
The federation had offered Maradona a four-year contract to continue through the 2014 World Cup. But Maradona said he would stay only if his entire staff remained.
That was unacceptable to Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona. He had asked for several assistants to be replaced. One of them is Maradona’s close friend Alejandro Mancuso. The federation’s executive committee sided with Grondona.