BISSAU - Long-serving Guinea-Bissau coach Baciro Cande will not have his contract renewed when it expires next month, the country’s football federation said on Wednesday.

The 56-year-old joins the list of coaching casualties after the Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast, where his side was the first to be eliminated after losing all their Group A games.

The home-born coach became a national hero in the former Portuguese colony for engineering four successive qualifications for the Cup of Nations finals after decades of being one of the continent’s whipping boys.

Cande had been in charge since 2016 following a previous stint as coach of the national team.

Already departed after the Cup of Nations tournament in Ivory Coast are Djamel Belmadi (Algeria), Rui Vitoria (Egypt), Tom Saintfiet (Gambia), Chris Hughton (Ghana), Jean-Louis Gasset (Ivory Coast), Adel Amrouche (Tanzania) and Jalel Kadri (Tunisia). REUTERS