Ratomir Dujkovic. (AFP)

BEIJING: With just 21 days to go for the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has reassigned coach Ratomir Dujkovic to a passive role, effectively handing over the reins of the team to his assistant Yin Tie Sheng, reported local media on Wednesday.

The move, which is yet to be officially confirmed by the CFA, seems to be a fall-out of China’s elimination from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, tensions between the 52-year-old Serb trainer and the players, particularly charismatic captain Zheng Zhi, and intense media criticism over the coach’s alleged disrespect to the Chinese national anthem.

The decision follows discussions last night between Dujkovic and top CFA officials.

“We held negotiations with Dujkovic for five hours and reached an agreement at 3am this morning,” CFA General Secretary Xie Yalong was quoted as saying on a leading Chinese sports portal.

“We mutually decided that due to the condition of his health he cannot fulfil the pressure-filled job of China Olympic team coach. From now on he will be involved only in collecting information about opponents and providing information on training matters.”

“Yin Tie Sheng will lead the team and rely on technical advice from Dujkovic.”

Of late, Dujkovic has also been slammed by the Chinese media for setting up friendlies against weak teams like Malaysia.

China have been grouped with Brazil, Belgium and New Zealand and kick off their campaign against the latter team on August 7 in Shenyang.

Yin, a former Shandong Luneng player, took to coaching in 1990, later guiding Shandong to the Chinese FA Cup title in 1995. In 1999, he moved to Changchun Yatai, the current league champions, before being appointed as the China U-20 coach in 2004. He took over the reins of another Shandong side, Qingdao, in 2005 and continued until 2008 when he was named as assistant coach of the Olympic team.