Iraq Sack Egil Olsen, Iran Continue Clemente Silliness

Who’d want to be a foreign coach in the Middle East? Yesterday it seemed that Javier Clemente had settled his differences with Iran and agreed to live in the country full time. Today we learn that Clemente agreed to no such thing . So now both Iran and Clemente are back where they started and the March 26th World Cup qualifier away to Kuwait is another day nearer. Meanwhile Iraq have dispensed with the services of Norwegian coach Egil Olsen (pictured) after just a handful of games. Olsen has a 100% record of qualifying for the World Cup (he took Norway to the 1994 and 1998 finals) and was unbeaten in 2010 qualification with Iraq after just one game against a relatively tough opponent. But he was fired for either refusing to train the team in Iraq, failing to secure sponsorship contracts from Norway or for failing to beat China recently, even though they pulled off a plucky 1-1 draw despite being down to 10 me for the last 20 minutes. Olsen must be wondering what the hell just happened.