Stojanovic to take over Slovenia reins

The Slovenian Football Association have announced Slavisa Stojanovic will be the new head coach of the national team. The 41-year-old Serbian replaces Matjaz Kek, who had his contract terminated by mutual agreement earlier today. Stojanovic is a familiar face in Slovenia having led club side Domzale to back-to-back domestic league titles in 2006/07 and 2007/08. He is also a former assistant coach of the United Arab Emirates, and will lead Slovenia in their qualifying campaign for the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ in Brazil. Earlier, Kek stepped down from the role after more than four years in charge. He took up the reins in January 2007 in place of Branko Oblak following a poor run in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying, and led the team to last summer's FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa. However, he failed to guide Slovenia to EURO 2012 after finishing a disappointing fourth in their recently-concluded qualifying Group C campaign - behind Italy, Estonia and Serbia. A statement on the organisation's official website, www.football.si, announced Kek's departure, saying: "The Slovenian Football Association (NZS) and the national team head coach Matjaz Kek have come to a mutual agreement on the early termination of his contract. "Without a doubt Matjaz Kek has been a good general manager and achieved excellent results with the national team," the statement went on.  "NZS is thankful to Kek for the successful job and is looking forward to future joint achievements." Kek is expected to continue in some capacity with the association in conjunction with new coach Stojanovic.