São Paulo – The Qatari Football Association (QFA) announced this Monday (8th) that the Brazilian Sebastião Lazaroni is the new coach of the country’s national football team. He is replacing the Serbian Milovan Ravavec, who was fired on Sunday (7th) after Qatar lost an eliminatory match by 2 to 1.
Lazaroni was already in Qatar when he was invited for the new job. He had been coaching Qatar Sports Club since 2008. In the last season, the team finished fifth in the national championship. In 2009, Lazaroni won Qatar SC the title of the Crown Prince Cup.
Before arriving in Qatar, Lazaroni coached the Brazilian national team in the 1990 World Cup, in Italy. The team was eliminated by Argentina, which would later become the vice-champion upon losing the final match for Germany. Lazaroni has also coached Vasco and Fenerbahçe.
The president of the Qatari Football Association, Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, thanked the former coach for his “services provided,” but claimed that it was time for a change and that the association and the coach had agreed to end the contract.
He decided to fire the Serbian coach, who took Ghana to the round of eight of the South African World Cup, in 2010, because the team lost to the weak Vietnamese team in the second round of the Asian eliminatory phase. In the first match, the Ghana team had defeated the same opponent by 3 to 0. Qatar is 90th on the ranking of the International Football Federation (Fifa). Vietnam ranks 144th.
Lazaroni will have the mission of taking the Qatari team to the Brazil World Cup, in 2014. For such, he will have to finish among the top two teams in the third stage of the Asian eliminatory stage. Its group comprises Iran, Bahrain and Indonesia. Qatar will host the World Cup 2022, for which it is automatically qualified due to being the host country. Lazaroni should debut in the new team next Wednesday (10th), in a friendly match against Iraq.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
