Iraq Football Association denies sacking coach Srecko Katanec
Iraq
Football Association had denied reports saying that it sacked national team's coach Srecko
Katanec after the team’s defeat in the WAFF Championship 2019 final.
Iraq was defeated 1-0 to
Bahrain in the final of the ninth WAFF Championship at the Karbala Sports
City last week with Isa Moosa scoring the only goal of the game.
After the final, it was
reported that Slovenian tactician Katanec will not be continuing as the head
coach of the
Lions of Mesopotamia with his agent Behrooz Dezhbod
claiming that “corrupted people” were attacking and destroying Iraq's national
team.
However, a meeting of the
Iraq FA officials on Monday seem to have decided against dismissing Katanec
with the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup Joint-Qualifiers second
round fixtures just around the corner.
Soccer
Iraq are reporting that though Iraqi officials have not sacked
the coach, a meeting will be held with the Slovenian soon “to discuss the
amendments that the Iraq FA want to make to his contract.”
Iraq team are in Group C of the
2022 World Cup Qualifiers along with Iran, Bahrain,
Hong Kong and Cambodia. The country was recently dealt a blow when FIFA
asked them to play their home matches in the qualification campaign at a
neutral venue outside of Iraq.
