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FC Basel fire coach

Gross (right) leaves Basel after ten years Keystone

Switzerland's most successful football club in recent history have dismissed long-time coach, Christian Gross.

The management of FC Basel said on Wednesday they took the decision because the club had “failed to reach its most important goals of the season”.

Basel’s 4-1 loss on Sunday to Zurich’s Grasshoppers ended the club’s chance of capturing this year’s Super League Championship.

In Gross’s ten years at the helm, Basel won both the championship (2002, 2004, 2005, 2008) and the Swiss Cup (2002, 2003, 2007 und 2008) four times. The club also qualified for Uefa’s Champions League twice under his leadership.

The 54-year-old’s dismissal comes as a surprise since it was only in December he signed on to remain Basel coach until 2011.

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