Winfried Schaefer to be coach of Thailand's national team

BANGKOK (AP) — Winfried Schaefer has signed a memorandum of understading to be coach of Thailand's national team.Local media reported Wednesday that former Cameroon coach Schaefer signed Tuesday with the Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi.

Worawi, who had recently been battling corruption allegations, was attending the Women's World Cup in Germany and an official agreement is expected to wait until his return next month.

However, Worawi said the FAT executive had agreed on appointing the German, and media reports put the salary at almost $50,000 per month for three years.

"He has possibly the best qualifications of any foreigner we have ever hired to coach the team," Worawi was quoted as saying. "We are hoping that he can bring success to our team."

Schaefer led Cameroon to the African Nations Cup title in 2002 and coached the team at that year's World Cup. He was most recently in charge of Azerbaijan club Baku.

"I came here to start new development of Thai football by strengthening the overall structure," Schaefer said. "Producing young players is very necessary as I have done for several years in Germany."

The appointment came with the Thai national team's fortunes at a low ebb. The under-23 team was excluded from Olympic qualifiers for fielding an ineligible player in an early-round meeting with Palestine, while the senior team performed below expectation in the Southeast Asian regional Suzuki Cup.

Those problems were compounded when FIFA executive committee member Worawi was accused of asking for television rights to a proposed Thailand-England friendly in return for voting for England to host the 2018 World Cup. He denied those allegations and was cleared by a FIFA investigation.

Worawi was last weekend re-elected as FAT president in a poll that was delayed — a move that had initially led the Thai government to declare his presidency void.

"I told him (Schaefer) that our priority concern is the coming World Cup Asian qualifier," Worawi said. "We set a target to finish top ten among Asian countries."