Iranian Football Officials extend contract with Afshin Ghotbi until 2011

Iran's South Africa 2010 quest was brought to an end in the closing matchday of Asia's qualifying final round, when they failed to defeat Korea Republic, while Saudi Arabia shared the spoils with Korea DPR in the other group extinguishing Team Melli's last flicker of hope. The results saw Korea DPR claim the coveted automatic berth with Saudi Arabia left with third place and in the play-off position, but Iran agonizingly one point short and empty-handed.

After the dust had settled on the campaign, the former Persepolis boss claimed responsibility for the team's failure despite the fact he took over only a couple of months ago. "I take responsibility for the failure and apologize to the Iranian people," Ghotbi said recently. "Unfortunately, we had just nine minutes to qualify for South Africa's World Cup, but we lost the chance in such a short time," lamented Ghotbi in reference to Park Ji-Sung's 81st minute equalizer for the Koreans.