The Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) said on Sunday that Croatian Dragan Skocic has been reinstated as coach less than a week after he was fired.
On Monday, the official IRNA news agency said 53-year-old Skocic had lost his job just five months before the start of the World Cup in Qatar.
According to daily sports newspaper Khabar Varzeshi, the likes of ex-Iran captain and star striker Ali Daei refused a proposal to take over from Skocic.
“The board of the Football Federation has once again emphasized on the all-round support of the technical staff of the national team, and based on this, the cooperation between the two sides will continue,” FFIRI said.
Skocic was appointed in early February 2020 to replace Belgian Marc Wilmots, who left in December 2019, three matches into the second round of Asian World Cup qualifying, in a dispute with the federation after two consecutive defeats.
Skocic guided Iran to first place in their group in both that stage and the final one, to take Iran to its sixth World Cup. He has won 15 of his 18 games in charge.
In Qatar, Iran kicks off its World Cup campaign against England on Nov. 21. The USA and Wales also in its group. It is expected to attract thousands of fans at its matches due to its location across the Persian Gulf.
ap/kam/iwd/dj
© Agence France-Presse
Can’t believe I hadn’t heard about his firing 6 days ago… in our group, massively successful going into WC… even in this article not a single indication as to why he was fired, let alone brought back last then a week later…
seems like there’s a lot of story here but all we get is a former player and captain (who may or may not have any coaching experience at all?) turned the job down?
Is there no SA writer looking into this? Just copy/pasting an article from France?