DPA - The Iranian Football
Federation (FFI) is looking for a German coach for its national football
team and the first option is Lothar Matthaeus, a unnamed FFI official told
the Mehr news agency on Wednesday. Besides Matthaeus, a former Hungary coach
who also worked at clubs in Austria and Serbia, there is also a second
German candidate whose name the FFI official did not disclose.
There has, however, been speculation in the local sports media that Iran was
also after Cologne coach Christoph Daum, interviewed only last week by the
Fars news agency.
According to Mehr, the FFI has already had indirect contacts with the two.
Talks had also been with Winfried Schaefer and Peter Neururer, but
apparently without any tangible results.
Iran is the only national team in Asia which has no head coach. The players
are trained for the time being by two local assistant coaches.
But the FFI wants to employ a head coach before the first World Cup 2010
qualification game against Syria on February 6 in Tehran, stressing several
times that it wants a top foreign coach.
