QUITO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Colombian Hernan Gomez has been sacked as Ecuador's head coach after the team's disappointing Copa America campaign, the country's football association said on Wednesday.
The 63-year-old was given an undisclosed payout for the termination of his contract three years before it was due to expire.
"It pains us that he is no longer Ecuador's coach," Francisco Egas, the president of the Ecuadorian Football Federation, told a news conference. "It's a shame because his name is important in the history of Ecuadorian football."
The announcement came just over a month after Ecuador's group-stage elimination from the Copa America in Brazil, where they took just one point from three matches.
Gomez took charge of La Tricolor for a second time last July after leading Panama to their first World Cup finals in Russia last summer.
The 63-year-old was also Ecuador's head coach from 1999 to 2004, guiding them to the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea. He also led his native Colombia to the World Cup finals in France four years earlier. Enditem
