China has decided against appointing another foreign coach to run its national football team with Shenzhen's Zhu Guanghu shaping up as favourite to take over from Dutchman Arie Haan.

"In the next four years leading up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, we will not appoint a foreign head coach for the national team," said China Football Association vice president Yang Yimin.

"The head coach post is to be assumed by a local coach, while a foreign coach will serve as the technical director," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

Haan departed after the team's early exit from the 2006 World Cup Asian qualifiers.

Xinhua said the decision not to appoint another foreign coach reflected the sports authorities' disappointment at the capabilities of overseas hires.

Dutch coach Haan took over the Chinese team in December 2002 and led them to the finals of the Asian Cup last year, but his failure to steer them to the World Cup finals was seen as a bitter pill to swallow.

Zhu, who led Shenzhen Jianlibao to the title of the inaugural Chinese Super League last season, is tipped to take over the vacant post.

"Zhu is a very capable coach, but he is just one of the candidates," said Yang.

China will play friendlies with Spain on March 26 and Ireland on March 29. Xinhua said the CFA was likely to name Zhu as the head coach on a caretaking basis for those games.

Over the past decade China has run through four foreign coaches, including German Klaus Schlappner, Briton Bobby Houghton and Serb Bora Milutinovic in addition to Haan.

Milutinovic was the only one who carved out any success, taking China to the 2002 World Cup finals, where it lost all its matches.

Source: Agencies/China Daily