Miroslav Blazevic to coach China Olympic football squad

China named Croatia’s Miroslav Blazevic the new head coach of its Olympic football team, state media reported.

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is bringing Blazevic in after the team’s poor performance at the Asian Games in Guangzhou last month, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

He replaces Chinese coach Sun Wei.

Blazevic signed a two-year contract with the CFA, which expires in December 2012, Xinhua said. Li Bing was named assistant coach.

Blazevic, 75, who coached Croatia to third place in the 1998 World Cup, led the Chinese Super League team Shanghai Shenhua to third place this year.

He resigned as Bosnia’s national coach last year after the team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

China’s media showered invective on the Olympic side last month, calling it the worst in the country’s history as it suffered humiliating losses to arch-rivals Japan and South Korea.

China’s fans had hoped a good run at the Asian Games would help turn the page on a corruption scandal that resulted in the arrests of two former heads of the Chinese Football Association and a bevy of lower-level officials.