Miroslav_BlazevicDecember 28 - Veteran Croatian coach Miroslav Blazevic has been named the new head coach of the Chinese Olympic football team in the hope of guiding them to success at London 2012.


He replaces Sun Wei, who has been sacked after a disappointing performance by the team at the Asian Games in Guangzhou last month. 

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has signed a two-year contract with the Blazevic, which will expire on December 1, 2012.

Li Bing was named the assistant coach.

The 73-year-ld Blazevic has a rich coaching history, highlighted by taking Croatia to third place at the 1998 World Cup in France.

He led the Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua to third place this year.

Blazevic had resigned as Bosnia's national coach last year after the team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa

China's media claimed the Olympic side worst in the country's history as the under-23 team suffered humiliating losses to arch-rivals Japan and South Korea during the Asian Games.

China's fans had hoped a good run at the Asian Games would help turn the page on a corruption scandal that resulted in the arrests of two former heads of the CFA and several lower-level officials.