Bauermann to oversee transition for Iran

TEHRAN (2016 Rio Olympics) - The Iranian Basketball Federation has confirmed that the plan is for head coach Dirk Bauermann to remain in charge of the men's senior national team through the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The 57-year-old German steered Iran to a third-place finish at the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship.

Iran reached the podium in Changsha-Hunan

Iran's top-four finish clinched a spot in one of next year's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs).

"We have decided to sign a contract of four years with him," Iran Basketball Federation Secretary General Ali Towfigh said to FIBA.com on Wednesday afternoon.

"We finished the verbal agreement with him two weeks ago.

"He will be here December 6."

Towfigh said that Bauermann's agent had sent him proposals to wrap up the construction of the contract.

"I think that we'll finish the contract at the end of this week," he said.

Towfigh added that Bauermann had shown this year he is a coach the federation can work with.

"He's a very flexible person. He knows what we need for Iranian basketball," he explained.

"We've given him some ideas and items to follow up and he's working on all those things."

Bauermann was able to coach Germany at the 2008 OQT to one of three spots for the Beijing Games and he also led the team at those Olympics.

The format has changed because now, instead of one 12-team OQT, there will be three six-team OQTs.

Victory in one of them will be needed to punch Iran's ticket for the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Iran, winners of the 2007, 2009 and 2013 FIBA Asia Championships, saw their hopes of direct qualification for Rio go up in smoke in a 70-57 Semi-Final defeat to hosts China last month in Changsha-Hunan.

The 68-63 win over Japan in the Third-Place Game eased the disappointment of not taking the title and clinching qualification for Brazil.

Towfigh says it is too early to know which players Bauermann will take to an OQT.

"Will we face those tournaments with the youngest team and looking to the future or looking to reach Rio 2016?" he said.

"It depends on the strategic plan of Iranian basketball.

"But we are looking at the big picture of Iranian basketball in the future.

"We start from 2016 to 2020, the cadets we recruit them and we start with the coaches to prepare the talent identification for the future and Dirk Bauermann can help us in this matter.

"It's a little bit soon to decide if we go this way or that way (for the OQT).

"It depends on the final decision in Iran between coach Bauermann, coach (Mehran) Shahintab and other staff and for sure, the Iranian Federation technical committee."

A changing of the guard will happen, whether it's next year, the year after or the year after that.

China's leading players are in their thirties.

Mahdi Kamrani will be 34 years old at next year's OQT

The Chinese, meanwhile, have already brought in a lot of young players and they excelled at the FIBA Asia Championship.

Their team went undefeated, capped with a victory over the Philippines in the Final.

"China basketball has turned into a giant and we have a very difficult task ahead of us," Bauermann said, according to TeamIran.net.

"We really need to work hard."

FIBA