Persepolis coach has big ambitions

PRESS TV - TEHRAN, New Persepolis coach Afshin Ghotbi has promised to the fans to make the popular football team the seventh Iranian Premier League champion.

"I have been told not to talk about becoming the champion. But we will make a team that will change Iranian football and can play good against world's best football teams," Ghotbi said in his first press conference.

Predicting that his team will win its first match in the Premier League, he stated that Persepolis will work hard to take the cup home after five years.

The seventh Iranian Premier League is to start Thursday afternoon. In the opening match, Persepolis will face San'at-Naft-e Abadan.

Ghotbi worked for the Korean national team as a technical analyst under Dutchman Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat. The 43-year-old Ghotbi signed a one-year contract to train Reds at the 2007-8 Iran Premier Football League.