Scotland fires coach Burley after rout by Wales

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GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) -- Scotland fired coach George Burley on Monday after the team slumped to an "unacceptable" defeat at Wales in a friendly.

Scotland, which hasn't qualified for a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup, is now looking for its fifth manager in five years after Berti Vogts, Walter Smith, Alex McLeish and Burley.

The Scottish Football Association unanimously decided to sack Burley despite in September backing him to remain in charge after the team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Burley had convinced the SFA board that he was equipped to preside over the 2012 European Championship qualification campaign.

But Saturday's 3-0 loss at Wales in the wake of a defeat in Japan made Burley's position untenable.

SFA chief executive Gordon Smith said the decision came after a "realization that the expectations of the supporters, the Scottish FA and George himself, were not being met."

Burley, whose contract ran through 2012, was hired in 2008 after McLeish failed to qualify for the European Championship. He won just three of his 14 matches in charge with the team failing to score in nine of those games.

"I should point out that the Scottish FA stands by its decision to give the national coach our full support despite failure to qualify for the World Cup playoffs," Smith said. "It would have been negligent not to have given George every opportunity to rebuild and revitalize the squad in light of the improved performances in the last two qualifiers against Macedonia and Holland.

"Unfortunately, the adverse results in the two subsequent friendly matches against Japan and Wales provided confirmation that the improvement could not be sustained."

Burley's assistants, Terry Butcher and Paul Hegarty, are also leaving their posts.

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