Fenerbahce sack Jose Mourinho after failure to qualify for Champions League | OneFootball

Fenerbahce have sacked Jose Mourinho after they failed to qualify for the Champions League.

The club are only six games into the new season, having earnt four points from their first two league games. They beat Feyenoord 6-3 on aggregate in the third round of Champions League qualifying but lost to Benfica 1-0 in the final play-off round to miss out on a place in the league phase of Europe’s most lucrative competition.

“Our Professional Football First Team’s technical director, Jose Mourinho, who has been carrying out his duties starting from the 2024-2025 season, has parted ways with us,” the club said in a statement. “We thank him for his efforts for our team until today and wish him success in his future career.”

Mourinho’s departure from the Istanbul club follows his public criticism of the hierarchy’s approach in the transfer market, in which he felt he wasn’t sufficiently backed to improve the squad.

“If the Champions League was vital to my club, something would have been done with the transfer window between Feyenoord and Benfica,” Mourinho said earlier this month. “I don't think Fenerbahce has a transfer list.”

The board were reported in Turkish media as blaming Mourinho himself for a lack of transfer activity, claiming he had failed to name his targets.

Mourinho, 62, took charge of Fenerbahce in July 2024 after leaving AS Roma. The former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United manager was greeted by thousands of fans when he arrived in Istanbul at the start of last summer, raising expectations of ending Galatasaray’s recent dominance as Fenerbahce chase their first title since 2013.

But he could only lead the team to a second-placed finish in the league behind their great rivals. They were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Turkish Cup and fell at the round of 16 in the Europa League.

Fenerbahce’s inconsistent start to the new season and early European struggles, coupled with his strained relationship with the board, put his position under pressure.

The news comes only a day after fellow Turkish giants Besiktas sacked another former Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.