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DPA - Iran might postpone the
employment of a new national team coach, the ISNA news agency reported
Sunday. According to previous press reports, Portuguese coach Artur Jorge
had already been named as new coach and even held talks with the Iranian
Football Federation (FFI) on Thursday in Tehran.
But as the elections for the new FFI president are to be held on January 9,
the two main candidates asked for the deal not to be finalized until after
the elections.
The two main candidates, Ali Kafashian, secretary general of Iran's Olympic
Committee, and Shahrokh Shahnazi, head of the country's tennis federation,
told ISNA that selecting the new coach should rather be the job of the new
FFI president.
Since the news leaked out that Jorge is the top candidate for the trainer
job, the Tehran sports press doubted whether the Portuguese would really be
the best option.
Several dailies argued that Jorge has trained no big team for the last six
years, suffered more losses than victories during his career and furthermore
had heart problems.
The two other options of the FFI were French coach Jacques Santini and
German Peter Neururer but Jorge is said to have demanded much less than the
two.
Due to differences with football's ruling body FIFA over governmental
interference in football affairs, the FFI has had no president since last
year.
In the first round of the World Cup qualifiers, Iran has to play against
Kuwait, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
Before the qualifiers, Iran will have two friendly games against German club
Hansa Rostock and the national team of Mali.
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