Most delegates, who are leading officials of local football associations across the country, said at a meeting in Beijing that to have a high-level foreign coach would be one of the shortcuts for China to qualify for 2006 World Cup finals.

Former incumbent Bora Milutinovic, who led China to its first ever World Cup finals, had stepped down in the wake of the tournament this summer in South Korea and Japan.

Though China ended up three losses in as many group games and failed to score a single goal, the country didn't take the Yugoslav as a scapegoat.

But the poor results sounded an alarm to the Chinese soccer officials, who knew that it would be much tougher for China to qualify again for the premier soccer event.

Japan and South Korea automatically qualified for the 2002 World Cup as co-hosts, which cleared much of the obstacle for China to book the finals berth.

Soccer officials knew that local coaches are still not ready to take the daunting challenge of leading China into its second World Cup.

They agreed that the new coach would be quite influential in the sport's world, and have some knowledge of the current situation of the Chinese soccer.

( July 26, 2002)