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Doubts raised about Grant's future over lack of qualification

Avram Grant, appointed Chelsea's manager after Jose Mourinho's shock departure on Thursday, lacks the required coaching qualification to run a Premier League club.

Under its rules the Premier League stipulates that a manager must hold the UEFA Pro License which requires 240 hours of study and usually takes a year to gain, the BBC reported yesterday.

Chelsea have confirmed that Grant, the former Israel manager and Chelsea's director of soccer, does not possess the qualification, raising questions about his long term future at Stamford Bridge.

The Premier League has relaxed its rules in the past in what it deemed exceptional circumstances involving Glenn Roeder at West Ham and Gareth Southgate at Middlesbrough.

Both men had begun studying for the Pro License but Roeder's studies were disrupted because of a brain tumor and Southgate was given special dispensation because of his involvement as a player with England.

Both Roeder and Southgate, however, possessed the lesser A and B licenses, but Grant does not even hold these according to the Times.

The newspaper reveals that Grant has written to the Israeli FA asking to enroll on one of their courses as a matter of urgency.

His first game in charge of Chelsea could not be tougher -- an away trip to champions Manchester United today.

Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho intends to look outside England for his next coaching job.

He said on Friday he would like to return to the Premier League one day, but not immediately.

"I don't want it in my next step. I don't want to leave Chelsea's door and go immediately to another door," Mourinho told Sky Sports News. "I think my next step will be another country, must be another experience, must be another football."

"I love English football and I don't change a single word I've said before," said Mourinho, who added that he cried over his departure. "Everything I do is with a lot of passion and emotion."

Mourinho also said the mutual decision to leave Chelsea was the right thing to do.

"The top people at the club are happy, and I'm happy, too," he said, adding he was not fired and didn't quit. "If I wanted to close the door I would do it before -- at the end of season."

"If Chelsea wanted to sack me they would do it at the end of the season and not at this moment. So mutual agreement I think is the correct English for what happened," he said.

"I am not interested in Chelsea football matches. I don't care at all," Mourinho said. "For me Chelsea has finished, I keep the good things in my heart and nothing else. Now it is up to them."

Mourinho also seemed to rule out a move to coach Portugal's national soccer team -- at least for now.

"I have always said it was an option for me, but only toward the end of my career when it is something I've never experienced," Mourinho said on Portuguese radio.

Mourinho added that he wanted to learn another language, either German or Italian being the most likely. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's heading to Italy or Germany.

"I am ready for every country, for every project," Mourinho said. "I just hope that the next one I am surrounded by love so I can express everything I have to express in terms of my qualities as a manager."
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