*

China's Olympic soccer coach replaced

Saturday, 19th July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

*
About a week after sacking men's national team coach Vladimir Petrovic and, more remarkably, three weeks before the Olympics, China removed its men's soccer (football) Olympic head coach Ratomir Dujkovic on Thursday. The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has replaced him with Yin Tiesheng, who led the men's under-20 national team in 2004 and has also coached the CFA's Qingdao team.

Dujkovic, who is Serbian, has not been fired by the association, according to this Xinhua story, but moved to another job. No reason has been given for the change and Dujkovic has not made public comment.

This is the third elite-level coach the CFA has removed from a post in four months; it has now completely overhauled its head coaching lineup for both men's and women's teams. The CFA let national team men's coach Vladimir Petrovic (also Serbian) go last week after a failed World Cup qualifying run. In March, it fired women's coach, Elizabeth Loisel of France, by e-mail after political conflicts with team officials.

Related:
China Fires Men's National Soccer Coach
Au Revoir (Loisel fired)

Tags: Elizabeth Loisel, football, Olympics, Ratomir Dujkovic, soccer, Vladimir Petrovic