Pijpers pointed to the exit

Unanimous vote
The EJL reached its decision late last night after an unanimous vote from its 13 board members. EJL president Indrek Kannik told uefa.com: "As a coach, a teacher of our young players and one of the creators of the coach education system in Estonia, Pijpers did an excellent job and has made a great contribution to the development of Estonian football."

'Disappointing'
Talks between the EJL and Flora and Pijpers started in March, when both sides spoke optimistically about a three-year contract extension for the coach. Since then, however, results have deteriorated and the negotiations stopped. A disappointed Pijpers said: "I had my perfectly reasonable - non-financial - demands, which were not met, but I was anyway eager to continue here, so the decision comes as a disappointing one for me."

Three titles
Pijpers took the dual role of Flora and Estonia coach in November 2000 and he led the club to three consecutive titles between 2001 and 2003. This season Flora have struggled to match those standards and they are currently third in the league. With the national team, Pijpers had a good UEFA EURO 2004™ qualifying campaign, collecting eight points and recording goalless draws against Croatia and Bulgaria - both of whom reached the finals in Portugal. Arguably Pijpers' best result in four years came in March 2002, when Estonia beat Russia 2-1 in a friendly.

Final match
Estonia have won two of their opening three FIFA World Cup qualifiers and Pijpers' last game in charge of Estonia will be the Group 3 match against Latvia on 13 October in Riga. With his contract ending on 15 November, it remains to be seen who will take charge of Estonia for their final international this year, the World Cup qualifier in Russia on 17 November. Under-21 coach Jelle Goes and FC Levadia Tallinn's head coach Tarmo Rüütli are possible candidates.