Former Lyon coach Alain Perrin is reported to be the Chinese national football team’s new head coach and a confirmation from the Chinese Football Association (CFA) is awaited.

A web company quoted CFA’s vice president Yu Hongchen saying that the 57-year-old Frenchman Perrin will take over from caretaker Fu Bo, who has been in charge of the team after Antonio Camacho was sacked following a humiliating 1-5 friendly loss to Thailand.

CFA spokeswoman Huang Shiwei told Xinhua, she could say nothing about the news. The CFA said on its twitter-like weibo: “We have been progressing on choosing a new coach for the national team, and will make it public once the name is finalised.”

China will play Iraq March 5 in their last group match at the 2015 Asian Cup Australia qualifiers in Dubai. And a draw will see the away side through to the Asian Cup finals as group runners-up, second to leaders Saudi Arabia. Fu Bo will still be the coach for the match, which is probably his last one in charge. It is reported that Perrin will fly to Dubai with the Chinese team and watch that game.

The Chinese national team has been struggling in recent years. They failed to reach the last round of the World Cup Asian qualifiers consecutively for the past three editions, and even find it difficult to advance to the Asian Cup finals.