Francesco Scoglio has claimed his sacking from his post as coach of Libya's national team was down to the fact that he refused to select Al-Saadi Gaddafi for the side.

Gaddafi is the son of the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi, and head of the Libyan Football Federation.

Scoglio was dismissed on Wednesday, with the Libyan FA stating that the reason was recent poor performances by the side.

Scoglio contested that the real reason was that he refused to select Gaddafi, who had been a regular in the side under previous coaches.

"They sacked me because I wouldn't let him play," Scoglio told the Italian sports newspaper Corriere dello Sport.

"And I would never have let him play, even for a minute," he added.

"As a footballer he's worthless."

Scoglio was sacked on the back of three impressive performances, beating Egypt 1-0, Togo 4-0, and then securing a surprise 3-2 victory over DR Congo in the opening round of Nations Cup qualifiers.

But Gaddafi was left out of the squad for the first two games and remained on the bench during the third.

"I'm a football manager, not a puppet," Scoglio said of his decision to leave the midfielder out.

"With him in the squad, we were losing. When he left, we won."

Under Scoglio the side improved in the Fifa world rankings from 120 to 104.