Madrid: Real Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo was sacked on Sunday just over 11 months after taking charge of the nine-time European champions. The 53-year-old Brazilian, who was Real’s fifth coach in the space of two and a half years, was dismissed following an emergency board meeting at the club’s Bernabeu stadium.

“The Real Madrid board has decided that Vanderlei Luxemburgo will not continue as coach of the first team,” club vice-president Emilio Butragueno told a news conference. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but the board considered that we had reached a point where we needed a change.

“The team was not living up to expectations and that worried both us and the fans and that was the fundamental reason for our decision, which was unanimous.”

The announcement came a day after Real’s lacklustre 1-0 win at home to Getafe, but the detonating factor was a humiliating 0-3 home defeat by arch-rivals Barcelona two weeks ago.

Butragueno said Luxemburgo’s four Brazilian assistants would also be dismissed and that reserve team coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro would take over on a caretaker basis.

He added that a decision on a replacement would be made in the next few weeks.

Juventus boss Fabio Capello, who led Real to the league title in 1997, former Celta Vigo and Porto coach Victor Fernandez, England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and Liverpool’s Rafael Benitez have all been mooted as possible replacements. (Reuters)