BAGHDAD, Feb 5: Jorvan Vieira has been sacked after just four months at the helm of Iraq’s national football team for failing to win a game at the Gulf Cup, an Iraq football union official said on Thursday.

“The Union has found it appropriate to dismiss the coach for his lack of success in leading the team in the 19th Gulf Cup,” Najeh Hamud, vice-president of the Iraqi Football Union told a press briefing in Baghdad.

Hailed as a hero after he guided the Iraqi national side to their first ever Asian Cup title in 2007, the Brazilian’s coaching skills were called upon again in September, in hopes he could reverse the slumping side’s fortunes.

But at the Gulf Cup held in the Oman’s capital Muscat in January the Iraqis failed to win a single game, finishing bottom of their group and even losing to lowly Bahrain.

Oman were crowned champions following their defeat of regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia in a penalty shoot-out.Hamud said that the union was now looking for a new foreign coach but declined to mention any possible candidates.

“The Union has decided to hand the job of training the football team to a foreign coach,” he said, adding that a decision would be announced after all the applications had been reviewed.

However, coaches who had previous experience with Arab or Gulf Arab states were preferred, Hamud said.

The 55-year-old Viera played for Brazilian sides Vasco da Gama, Botafogo and Portuguesa, then coached all three and proceeded to hold a range of coaching posts, initially in Qatar. He then moved to Oman before a spell in Morocco, whose assistant coach he was for the 1986 World Cup.

Thereafter he managed a string of Middle East clubs prior to a spell with Malaysia’s Under-20 side which preceded further posts in the Middle East.—AFP