Laszlo appointed Lithuania coach

Csaba Laszlo today was appointed the new coach of the Lithuanian national team, replacing Raimondas Zutautas who quit after a woeful UEFA EURO 2012 qualification campaign. Romanian-born Laszlo, 47, coached Uganda's national team from 2006 to 2008 and was assistant Hungarian coach from 2003 to 2005. "We have decided Laszlo is the best candidate due to his experience and the strategy prepared by him was the most professional," the football federation president Liutauras Varanavicius said in a statement. Zutautas, 39, quit the team in October after Lithuania managed only one victory in eight games during the EURO 2012 qualification campaign. Lithuania only returned to international football after five decades of Soviet rule ended in 1991. After lying as low as 118th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking in 2004, they climbed to a high of 37th in 2008, but they have now slid to 93rd in the rankings. Lithuania have been drawn with EURO 2004 champions Greece, Slovakia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Latvia and Liechtenstein in their 2014 FIFA World Cup™ qualification group that begins its matches in September.