Tehran - Iranian-American Afshin Qotbi, who is likely to be appointed as the new head coach of Iran's national football team, has "big aims" for the side on its way to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Tehran media reported Monday. Qotbi told Fars news agency that if his appointment is finalized, he would do his best to realize those "big aims."
Although Qotbi's appointment has not yet been made official by the Iranian Football Federation (FFI), the ISNA news agency reported that among the FFI he is the absolute favourite to get the job.
A special session was being held in the FFI to discuss the programmes of two other candidates and the final decision was to be announced either later Monday or Tuesday.
Qotbi said he had enough knowledge about Iran's opponents in the first qualification round - Kuwait, Syria and the United Arab Emirates - and had "a special tactic" for confronting them.
Iran has been the only national side in Asia without a head coach and started its World Cup qualification campaign with a disappointing goalless draw against Syria earlier this month. The second game will be against Kuwait next month.
The FFI in recent weeks tried to employ Portuguese Artur Jorge and Spaniard Javier Clemente but both efforts failed. Clemente had signed a contract but his main demand not to live in Iran permanently was eventually rejected by the Iranians.
