Japanese coach Akira Nishino has apologised to the Thai people for his failure to help the country's national teams reach their targets.
The former Thailand head coach, who was sacked by the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) last month, has written an apology letter to the Thai football fans, text of which was revealed on Sunday.
In his last venture with the War Elephants, Nishino saw his team knocked out of contention for a place in the 12-team third and final round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 Fifa World Cup in June in Dubai.
The Thai national team finished in fourth place in Group G of the second qualifying stage for the region, claiming only nine points from eight matches.
It was this failure which forced the FAT to terminate Nishino's contract.
In the letter dated Saturday, Nishino said he is back in Thailand and has already completed an alternative state quarantine for coronavirus.
"At first, I wanted to hold a press conference after submitting my report to the FAT, but the surge in Covid-19 cases in Thailand has ruled that out," added the Japanese coach.
"I am really very sorry that our training camp for the World Cup qualifying round in Dubai and the subsequent campaign did not go as planned.
"I feel sorry for the players the most because they were all eager to train hard but some coronavirus cases in the team forced everyone to self-isolate.
"We had to take along all 42 players to Dubai and select the final squad there. It was really very difficult to manage things at the time.
"Absence of some of the top players, including those playing in the J-League, also caused a drop in our performance."
Nishino also thanked the FAT and Thai football fans for their support during his stay in the Kingdom.