The resignation of popular Chile coach Marcelo Bielsa seems to be hurting the popularity of Chile President Sebastian Pinera.
Pinera's approval rating fell from 63 percent to 50 in November, which the head of a private polling company said on Friday was probably linked to Bielsa's unpopular resignation.
Bielsa stepped down last month after leading Chile to its first World Cup since 1998. Bielsa resigned when Spanish businessman Jorge Segovia was elected president of the country's football federation. Bielsa had supported the incumbent Harold Mayne-Nicholls.
Pinera's administration has denied it worked to unseat Mayne-Nicholls, who hired Bielsa.
''It is probably the Bielsa effect - to give it a name,'' Roberto Mendez, head of the polling company Adimark, said on radio Agricultura.
He said the drop might also be tied to the ''Miner Effect,'' a reference to the government's successful role in October in the rescue of 33 trapped coal miners.
Bielsa, who was from Argentina, had said before the election last month that he would leave his job if Segovia were elected. And he followed through, coaching his last match in a 2-0 victory over Uruguay on Nov. 17.
Bielsa, who coached Argentina in the 2002 World Cup, is a tactical innovator who gave Chile its best World Cup results since 1962. He was given a contract extension until 2015 but refused to sign it.
Pinera has been widely reported to not get along with Bielsa, who can be temperamental and is known in Spanish as ''El Loco'' - ''the Crazy One.''
Bielsa also had strong support from former Chile President Michelle Bachelet.
