Brazil sack head coach Menezes

Brazil fired Mano Menezes on Friday, little more than 18 months before the country hosts the 2014 World Cup and just as the coach seemed close to finding his ideal team after two years of experimenting.

The five-time world champions have won six of their last eight games, scoring 26 goals in the process, and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) said the surprise decision had little to do with results.

"I don't think it was for negative results, if that was the case he could have been fired last year," national teams director Andres Sanchez told a news conference in Sao Paulo.

"It was that the president (Jose Maria Marin) wants to change the way things are done."

Sanchez, who hired Menezes and is a close friend, himself disagreed with the decision.