BAGHDAD - The Iraqi Football Association has decided to end the contract with the national football team's Serbian head coach Vladimir Petrovic for his failure to help the team to qualify for the World Cup, an Iraqi sports official said on Tuesday.

The association unanimously decided to fire Petrovic because of "negative results" suffered by the Iraqi national football team, including its failure to get a ticket for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, a source of the Iraqi Olympic committee told Xinhua.

The association also reached an agreement with Petrovic to change the penalty condition mentioned in the contract, which Iraq should pay him 250,000 U.S. dollars. Instead, Iraq agreed to pay him 70,000 U.S. dollars.

Petrovic was appointed as head coach of Iraq's national football team in late February with a one-year contract for 800,000 U.S. dollars.

The association appointed Hakim Shaker, a former Iraqi football player and currently the head coach of the Iraq U-20, as head coach to lead the Iraqi national team and he took responsibility of training the team officially as of Tuesday.