World Cup winner Gattuso fired as Palermo coach

PALERMO, Sicily (AP) Former World Cup winner Gennaro Gattuso was fired as coach of Serie B club Palermo on Wednesday following a string of poor results.

"Unfortunately for both me and him, we might have taken too big of a step for his first experience as manager," Palermo President Maurizio Zamparini said. "The results have shown that we were wrong."

Palermo, which was relegated from Serie A last season, hired the 35-year-old Gattuso in June, but has won only two of its opening six league games and fell to its third loss of the season on Tuesday at Bari.

Gattuso, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, was promoted to player-coach of Swiss club Sion in February but lasted only 13 matches.

Former Siena coach Giuseppe Iachini has been put in charge of Palermo.

Zamparini is often nicknamed the "manager-eater" because he has had 43 different managers in a quarter of a century, first at Venezia then at Palermo.

He gave Iachini his first managerial position at Venezia in 2001 after firing current Italy coach Cesare Prandelli but the young coach was suspended four months later because he did not have a coaching license.