Robert Jarni has been sacked as Croatia U17 coach by declaring his support for Real Betis.

Jarni has lost his job after publicly backing Betis to beat Dinamo Zagreb in tonight's Europa Conference League tie.

"Well, who will I encourage? Betis is my club, I spent three wonderful years there, but I didn't play for Dinamo. I don't know who could blame me for that. At the same time, I am a fan of Hadjuk from the heart," said Jarni.

For those words, the former Croatia and Real Madrid wing-back has been sacked.

The Croatian Federation announced:

"By unanimous decision of the Executive Committee of the Croatian Football Federation, Robert Jarni was relieved of his duties as coach of the Croatian U-17 team following inappropriate statements in the media.

"The HNS board of directors supports the right of each individual, including each soccer player, including national team players, to support the club they want, even against Croatian clubs in Europe, although such thinking is not considered desirable.

"However, HNS has a very clear position that higher standards are applied to all Croatian coaches and that it is inappropriate, undesirable and inadmissible that a person at the head of a Croatian national team openly supports against any Croatian club in a European competition. Promoting unity within the Croatian football family is a condition without which no Croatian national team can be successfully managed.

"Croatian national team selectors have a clear task of promoting union, cooperation, respect and mutual trust between all Croatian clubs, so HNS considers this type of decision to be the only correct one to protect the Croatian soccer family unit.