TEHRAN - Dragan Skocic has been sacked by Iran football federation with little more than four months to go to the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals.

The 53-year-old took over from Marc Wilmots as coach in February 2020 and secured the National Team a spot at the Qatar’s World Cup by topping their qualification group ahead of South Korea in late January and booked their place at the prestigious event as the first Asian team.

Skocic earned 15 wins out of 18 games in charge but lost two of his last three matches, including a 2-1 friendly defeat by Algeria in Qatar last month.

The Iranian football federation had previously announced that Skocic would be Iran coach in the World Cup.

Iran will participate at the World Cup for the sixth time in the country's history and on a third consecutive occasion.

The Persians will kick off their campaign against England on Nov. 21 before taking on Wales and the U.S in Group B.

Iranian coaches Javad Nekounam and Amir Ghalenoei are candidates to lead the National Team.