News / Sports

Shahintab takes helm as Iran basketball team head coach

Wednesday, 04 January 2017 3:41 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 04 January 2017 3:41 PM ]

Iranian basketball coach Mehran Shahintab (file photo)

Iranian basketball coach Mehran Shahintab has been appointed as the acting head coach of Iran men's national basketball team after professional basketball coach Dirk Bauermann stunningly parted company with the Islamic Republic of Iran Basketball Federation (IRIBF).

IRIBF President Mahmoud Mash'houn decided to appoint Shahintab, who is the head coach of Iranian professional basketball club Petrochimi Bandar Imam, to the post on Tuesday.

The decision came only two days after 59-year-old Bauermann wrote in a letter addressed to the Iranian basketball federation that he regrettably had to go back to Germany and not return to Iran.

He described the reasons as strictly personal, stating that his three-year-old daughter misses him intolerably.

Bauermann finalized an agreement with IRIBF officials in Tehran in November 2015 to steer the national Iranian men’s team for four years.

He took charge of the German professional basketball club s.Oliver Würzburg after the team severed ties with American Douglas Spradley on December 30. Spradley had been in charge of the club for two and a half years.

Mash'houn has said the IRIBF's contract with Bauermann stipulates that he should reach an agreement with the Iranian federation before taking charge of a club.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk