Radomir Antic has been sacked as Serbia coach following his side's poor results at the World Cup and a mediocre start to qualifying for Euro 2012.Serbia fell at the group stage in South Africa and drew at home with Slovenia in their second Euro 2012 qualifier.
Antic, 61, will be replaced by former Serbia international Vladimir Petrovic.
"We are aware it's a bad time to change coach but we have to take that chance," said Serbian Football Federation (FSS) president Tomislav Karadzic.
"Our board feel that the team was not managed properly after qualifying for the World Cup and that Antic is an excellent coach but not for the long term.
"We gave him a second chance after the World Cup fiasco but we got ourselves into a predicament and really had no choice.
"Petrovic will sign until the end of 2011 and his contract will be automatically extended if we qualify for Euro 2012."
Antic took over as Serbia coach before the start of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and guided they to the finals after they topped Group 7 ahead of France.
Rather than go for an expensive import we opted to give a talented home-grown coach a chance
Serbian Football Federation president Tomislav Karadzic
But his side were beaten by Ghana in their opening Group D match and, despite bouncing back with a shock win against eventual semi-finalists Germany, a 2-1 defeat by Australia ended their campaign.
Antic was heavily criticised for what many perceived as negative tactics, was at odds with the FSS and agreed to have his salary halved to remain in the job following a Fifa-imposed four-match ban for "inappropriate behaviour" during the Australia match.
The former Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona coach was suspended for Serbia's opening two Euro 2012 qualifiers - a 3-0 victory over the Faroe Islands and the draw with Slovenia - but Karadzic was less than pleased by the performance of his backroom staff.
"Antic's assistants have also been relieved of their duties and Petrovic will be able to choose his own staff," said the FSS chief.
Petrovic, a skilful midfielder in his playing days, scored 49 goals in 257 games for Red Star Belgrade before signing for Arsenal and making 13 appearances in the 1982-83 season.
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He was assistant coach when Red Star Belgrade won the European Cup in 1991 and also steered Serbia and Montenegro to the final of the 2004 European Under-21 Championship in Germany.
Petrovic had another brief spell with Red Star last season before taking charge of Romanian first division Timisoara, where he recorded two league wins and five draws in seven games at the start of this campaign.
"Rather than go for an expensive import we opted to give a talented home-grown coach a chance," Karadzic added.
"We will do all we can to qualify for Euro 2012 but it is not imperative because stronger teams than Serbia failed to qualify for recent major tournaments and it won't be a disaster if we don't make it.
"We have gone as far as we could with Antic and the most important thing now is to rebuild the kind of atmosphere he instilled when he took over in 2008."
Serbia's face Estonia in their next Euro 2012 qualifier on 8 October and visit Group C leaders Italy four days later.
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