Dutch legend Ruud Gullit was dismissed yesterday as manager of struggling Russian side Terek Grozny after losing a match he had been ordered to win by the club president and controversial leader of Chechnya.

“Gullit will no longer train Terek,” the Interfax news agency quoted Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov as saying after the club’s 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Amkar Perm.

“Unfortunately, he was unable to prove his mettle as a trainer. Under his leadership, the team played exceptionally poorly this season,” Kadyrov said.

Gullit said moments after the match ended that he expected to get the sack even if he had won yesterday’s encounter.

The 48-year-old, a two-time world player of the year, had failed to lift the team since his surprise appointment as coach at the beginning of the season.

“I don’t think it would have mattered if I had won or lost,” Gullit told a television reporter through a translator.

Terek now sit 14th in the 16-team Russian Premier League with three wins from 13 matches.

Gullit had stated before the beginning of the campaign that he was aiming for at least a Europa League place next season.

Terek Grozny were formed in 1958 but then vanished when war came to Chechnya in the 1990s and did not play again until 2001.

They finished in 12th place last year, two places above the relegation zone and 35 points behind champions Zenit Saint Petersburg.