Tanzania lost their three games against Senegal, Kenya and Algeria in a difficult Group C to crash out of AFCON 2019 without a single point. 

After the tournament, the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) on Monday, July 8 announced the sacking of their Nigerian coach Amuneke. 

“The Tanzania Football Association (TFF) and the national team coach, Emmanuel Amunike, have reached a joint agreement to terminate the contract between us,” read a statement on the TFF website.

“TFF will announce the TAN coach who will lead the national team for CHAN matches.

“TAN coaches will be announced after the Emergency Committee meeting on July 11, 2019.”

Amuneke was appointed coach of Tanzania in August 2018 and led them to qualify for their first AFCON tourney in 39 years. 

Although he managed to lead Tanzania to their first AFCON tournament in 39 years, finishing second in a group that had Uganda, Lesotho and Cape Verde and qualifying for a 24-team AFCON were not enough to convince the TFF. 

In truth, Tanzania were also one of the poorest teams in AFCON 2019 but while no one expected them to beat the likes of Algeria and Senegal, the loss to neighbours Kenya was hard to take. 

Tanzania were also the only country that went into the final rounds of group games without a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. 

Tanzanian sports writer Salim Masoud Said succinctly described Amuneke’s tenure as coach of Tanzania in a series of tweets. 

“Scandalous how Amunike was given the job in the first place. He was courted for a long time after a cosy CAF event and was given the job simply because of his name,” Said wrote on Twitter after the TFF announced Amunueke's sack. 

“You can’t get the best man for the job without having a proper selection process.”

Said also blasted Amuneke for constantly tinkering with the team and not knowing his best XI before AFCON 2019. 

He also opined that the Nigerian coach failed to improve the Tanzanian national team despite having a better squad than his predecessor and the increased numbers of foreign based-players.

This was Amuneke's sixth job in his coaching career.

The 48-year-old took up coaching after retiring and completed his coaching coaches in Europe in 2008. 

Since then he has managed Julius Berger and Ocean Boys but it was with Nigeria’s U-17 national team, the Golden Eaglets that he won his first trophy as a coach, leading Nigeria to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup title in 2015.

He was later promoted to the U-21 but his Flying Eagles side failed to qualify for the 2017 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Zambia.

He took over as coach of Sudanese side Al Khartoum Al Watani Sports Club in November 2017 but quit just after four months after the club told him to take a pay cut.