According to 163, the Chinese Football Association has unilaterally terminated the contract with coach Branko Ivankovic without any compensation. The reason is that the contract contains a clause stipulating that the Croatian coach must leave without receiving compensation if he cannot help the Chinese team pass the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.
Coach Branko Ivankovic was fired without receiving compensation (Photo: Getty).
The turning point that led to China's early exit from the World Cup qualifiers was the 0-1 defeat to Indonesia. After that defeat, the team from the country of a billion people had to stop in the tournament. The victory over Bahrain in the final match no longer meant much to China.
Thus, since 2002, China has still not been able to qualify for the World Cup, despite FIFA increasing the number of teams to 48 in the 2026 World Cup. Although over the years, the Chinese Football Association has had many different plans such as naturalizing players and using world- class coaches, the Chinese team is still lagging behind.
In the past, coach Ivankovic led Hannover 96 (Germany), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), the Iranian team, the Oman team... He also understands Chinese football when he helped Shandong Taishan win the Chinese national championship in 2010. However, the Croatian coach could not help the Chinese team progress.
The Chinese team played poorly under coach Ivankovic (Photo: Xinhua).
During his tenure, coach Ivankovic led the Chinese team in 14 matches, with a record of 4 wins, 2 draws, and 8 losses (winning rate of only 28.57%). He is the coach with the second lowest winning rate in the history of the Chinese team (only counting coaches with 10 or more matches), only better than his predecessor Jankovic (27.78%).
The Chinese Football Association is urgently searching for a new coach to lead the national team to participate in the East Asian Cup in July.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/hlv-trung-quoc-nhan-cai-ket-dang-sau-tran-thua-indonesia-20250614184541177.htm
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