(cri.com)
Updated: 2008-02-13 15:13

The head coach of China's women football team, Elizabeth Loisel, was fined for tardiness, website sina.com reports.

Head coach of China's women's soccer team Elizabeth Loisel watches players train in Guangzhou of South China in this January 7, 2008 file photo. Elizabeth was fined for tardiness, according to sina.com.

The punishment was announced by the team's director Zhang Jianqiang on Sunday after the coach missed the departure for a team's training session, leaving players sitting on the bus for more than ten minutes.

It's also an overdue penalty for the French who has been late for more than 20 times since she took the helm of the team last October.

Elizabeth is the second foreign coach the Chinese Football Association has signed after the Swede Marika Domanski-Lyfors who guided China into the last eight in the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup.

The coach is expected to lead the Chinese to the top three at this August's Beijing Olympics, an ambitious goal that most people think the team can hardly reach.