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Bundesliga

Hertha Berlin have reacted to their slump by announcing that coach Lucien Favre has been relieved of his duties.

Berlin's 5-1 defeat to Hoffenheim yesterday, a result which left them rooted to the foot of the table, was their sixth consecutive league reverse.

Furthermore, they were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by second division opponents 1860 Munich last week and were held to an embarrassing 1-1 draw by Lithuanian opponents Ventspils in their opening Europa League group fixture 10 days ago.

Favre's assistant Harald Gamperle has also been relieved of his duties with youth-team coach Karsten Heine appointed on an interim basis.

"Coach Lucien Favre and Harald Gamperle have been relieved of their duties effectively immediately," a press statement on the club's website, www.herthabsc.de, read.

"The training of the team will be controlled on an interim basis by Under-23 coach Karsten Heine."

Favre took over in the German capital just over two years and, after consolidating their position in the top flight in his first year in charge, he then led them to an unexpected fourth-placed finish last term.

Berlin were even still in the race for the Bundesliga title with two games of the season remaining.

However, the loss of key players Andrei Voronin, Marko Pantelic and Josip Simunic this summer and the failure to find adequate replacements has contributed to a terrible start to the season which has cost the Swiss coach his job.

Berlin's only league win this year came on the opening day of the season, when they defeated Hannover 1-0.

Since then they have been beaten by Borussia Monchengladbach, Bochum, Werder Bremen, Mainz, Freiburg and Hoffenheim.

Crowd figures have also slumped from an average of over 50,000 last season to under 40,000 for their last home game against Freiburg as the fans became disillusioned with their side's dramatic slump.

The club has called a press conference for this evening.