Sources close to the Libyan Football Federation said the latter is closing on a deal with the Spanish coach, Javier Clemente in place of the sacked Montenegrin manager Zoran Filipović, who failed to qualify the Mediterranean knights to 2022 AFCOC in Cameroon.

The sources say 71-year-old Clemente will appear as head coach of the team with a completely foreign coaching team in Libya's overseas training camp ahead of an Arab Cup qualifier against Sudan on June 19 - the tournament that will be hosted by Qatar on December 1-18.

Clemente, who was a Spanish national team coach before, told reporters he would visit Libya soon to watch games of Libyan League teams and prepare his list of players for his first Libya team game against Sudan next June, while the sources reiterated that the Libyan Football Federation conditioned the signing to Clemente's willingness to work from inside Libya, and the latter agreed.

Clemente coached the Libyan national football team in 2013 and led the Mediterranean knights to CAF's CHAN title in 2014 in South Africa.