Former Cameroon coach Schaefer to coach Iran

DPA - Former Cameroon coach Winfried Schaefer is to take charge of Iran's national football team, an unnamed official from the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) told Fars news agency on Wednesday. According to the official, other candidates are Frenchman Jacques Santini and former Holland coach Dick Advocaat but Schaefer is considered to be the most serious candidate.

Also the state television network IRIB confirmed that Schaefer is likely to become the coach for the Iranian team and even gave a short biography of the German.

Schaefer was coach of SC Karlsruhe and VfB Stuttgart before taking charge of Cameroon. His last job was in the United Arab Emirates where in 2006 he led Al-Ahli Dubai to the league title.

The FFI and sports head Mohammad Ali-Abadi, who is also deputy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dismissed Croatian Branco Ivankovic after the 2006 World Cup in Germany due to Iran's weak performance and vowed to employ a local coach for the national team.

But under new local coach Amir Qalehnoei Iran performed poorly at last July's Asian Championship in Malaysia and Indonesia where the three-time champions lost to a South Korean B-team in the quarter- finals.

The embarrassment and huge disappointment of the fans forced the FFI not to extend Qalehnoei's contract and consider once again employing a foreign coach.

Since then the national team has had no coach and played no games.