Javier Clemente Going House Hunting in Iran

February 27th, 2008 | by: Daryl | Comments(1)

The twisty turny tale of who is going to be Iran’s new coach (hopefully) twisted and turned towards some sort of conclusion today. Javier Clemente, who had previously put pen to paper only to fall out with the Iranian Football Federation over his plans to live in Spain and travel to Iran for games, has now made peace with his potential paymasters and agreed to live in Iran full time.

“By telephone, Clemente accepted Iran’s condition of living in Iran all the time,” was the announcement on state television.

Clemente’s appointment will confuse anyone who thought they heard Iran were planning to hire a local coach, though I suppose if the Spaniard moves to Iran then he’s technically local. Sort of.

Regardless of locality and/or nationality, the Spaniard has a huge job on his hands and better get to work pretty sharpish. Iran made a horrible start to World Cup 2010 qualifying by failing to beat Syria, so the next qualifying game away to Kuwait on March 26th is more than a little important.