He did not keep his coaching job in Iran for long, but it should have paid off anyway: football coach Marc Wilmots
Photo: Vassil Donev / dpaThe Iranian Football Association (FFI) has to pay its former national coach Marc Wilmots a severance payment of over six million euros. According to the state news agency IRNA, an FFI lawyer said this would be a ruling by the world association Fifa. However, the FFI wanted to appeal to the International Sports Court Cas, it said.
The 51-year-old Belgian and former Bundesliga professional Wilmots had signed a contract in May 2019 until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In the first four qualifying matches under Wilmots, however, the team suffered two defeats against Bahrain and Iraq and is currently only third in the group. This also endangers the planned participation in the World Cup.
"Contract rightly terminated"
After there were also problems with the salary payment, the contract with Wilmots was terminated - amicably, as the ISNA news agency had initially reported. Wilmots had contradicted this on Twitter: "We are in negotiations to find an amicable solution after the Iranian association has not fulfilled its contractual obligations and I rightly ended the contract," he wrote.
Accordingly, Wilmots is said to have previously requested his termination because his salary was not transferred on time. "The case lies with my lawyers, I will not comment further," he had written.
The verdict caused criticism and ridicule in the Iranian sports media. Over six million euros for five months of work, four competitive games and two embarrassing defeats was "a historic achievement" by the national association, it said.
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