Other events in Baltic States

Coaches of the Estonian national men's football team Martin Reim, Andres Oper, Janno Kivisild and Mart Poom have submitted their resignation applications to the Estonian Football Association, which was accepted at an extraordinary meeting of the management board on Sunday, the Estonian Football Association said LETA/BNS.

"Following the loss last week, we would have no scope for error in the future. This would have created an unsupportive atmosphere for the team for the coming matches. We discussed it with the coaches, met with the management board of the Football Association and decided to submit our resignations," Reim said.

"My warmest thanks go to all our players, personnel and fans for their cooperation and support over these years," he said.

Reim, head coach of the Estonian national men's football team from 2016 to 2019, co-led the team to 13 wins, eight draws and 15 losses and a 36.1 winning percentage, which is the highest achieved by the team's head coaches.

President of the Estonian Football Association Aivar Pohlak thanked the coaches for their dedication and work.

"We met with the coaches and shared their position that the resignations are a reasonable step," Pohlak said, adding that the association tried to figure out with the coaches whether the latter have a chance to turn the situation around and reached a conclusion that it was an unlikely outcome.

"The management board of the Football Association at an extraordinary meeting today [Sunday] also discussed the next steps -- we have an idea how to proceed, and the management board has granted the powers for launching negotiations with two candidates," Pohlak said.

The next match will see the Estonian national men's football team pitted against that of Belarus on A. Le Coq Arena in the European qualifiers on Sept. 6.