BUENOS AIRES, Aug 2: Alejandro Sabella will coach Argentina’s national team through the 2014 World Cup, the head of the country’s soccer association said on Monday, after Sergio Batista had his contract rescinded last week.

“The details are being finalised but Sabella will be coach from here ... until the World Cup in Brazil, contingent on Argentina qualifying for the tournament,” Argentine Football Association (AFA) chief Julio Grondona told Fox Sports.

Batista had been in charge of the team for a year, initially in an interim role after predecessor Diego Maradona was refused a new contract following Argentina’s quarter-final elimination at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

Batista’s contract was to have taken him to the end of the South American qualifiers for the World Cup in Brazil, but Argentina’s failure to win the Copa America on home soil last month ended up costing him his job.

Sabella had been tipped by local media as favourite to take over. An assistant to former Argentina boss Daniel Passarella at the 1998 World Cup, Sabella was also coach of the Estudiantes side that won the South American Libertadores Cup in 2009. —Reuters