Berti Vogts resigns as Azerbaijan coach

Berti Vogts has resigned as manager of Azerbaijan four days after a 6-0 thrashing by Croatia in European Championship qualifying.

Vogts had been in charge since 2008, and leaves Azerbaijan at the bottom of Group H after losing its first three qualifiers.

Azerbaijan’s football federation said its president Rovnag Abdullaev asked Vogts to stay, but the German “noted with regret that he couldn’t see his future in the Azerbaijan national team.”

Vogts took a parting shot at his players’ lack of “physical fitness” and “persistence” in a statement released by the federation on Friday.

He coached Azerbaijan to its best ever result, fourth in its 2014 World Cup qualifying group ahead of Northern Ireland and Luxembourg.

Vogts won the World Cup as a player with West Germany in 1974, and managed Germany to victory in Euro 1996.