Alain Perrin faced the axe as head coach of China’s National Soccer Team after poor performance in the World Cup qualifiers, which pointed toward an early exit from the tournament.
According to China Daily, the Football Association issued a statement on its website on Friday, Jan. 8, that it was cutting short the Frenchman's four-year contract before its end in 2018.
Officials met with Perrin and decided to sack him despite the remaining two games in the second round of the World Cup and Asian qualifier campaign, Malay Mail Online reported.
China, which is 82nd based on world FIFA ranking, is third in Group C with two home matches against Maldives and Qatar to come in March.
Qatar has already secured position one in the group and a chance in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers in Asia, with China soliciting for the best runners-up position to join them. In the Asian zone qualifying, the winner of each of the eight groups has a surety for the final round. The best four runners-up will join, whereby the 12 nations will fight for the continent's four automatic positions at the 2018 Russia World Cup.
The widely traveled Perrin, who has coached mainly in France and Asia, took over the Chinese National Team in Feb. 2014. He took the team to the quarter finals of the Asian Cup in 2015, but his fame dropped after two goalless draws with long-time rival Hong Kong in the current competition.
Seemingly, soccer has been both a passion and chronic pain in China as every key challenge results into the same unsolved problem: why a big nation cannot produce 11 able players.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Football Association revealed a slew of reform plans in 2015 as a way of strengthening soccer in China. Reportedly, a rank in the 32-nation World Cup campaign is China's primary objective.
The country has only qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, but failed a single group game to concede nine goals in the process without scoring even once.