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Austria have named Dietmar Constantini as their new coach after severing ties with Karel Brueckner earlier this week.

The 53-year-old Austrian, an interim national coach for three matches in 1991, has spent much of his coaching career in caretaker roles including stints at Austria Vienna, FC Kaernten and FC Superfund.

His first game in charge will be the country's next World Cup qualifier, a European Group Seven match against Romania in Klagenfurt on April 1.

"(The Austrian Football Federation) OeFB is glad that it was able to win its favourite candidate for the position," the federation said in a statement.

Constantini, a former coach of LASK Linz and Germany's FSV Mainz 05, won the Austrian championship with Wacker Innsbruck as a player in 1975 and 1977.

The OeFB cut short its contract with seasoned Czech trainer Brueckner, who was appointed in mid-2008, on Monday after a string of defeats.

The 69-year-old former Czech Republic coach Brueckner made a fine start to the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with a 3-1 home win over France last September but it was downhill from there.

Austria have taken four points from four matches in Group Seven. They have lost their last three matches, a qualifier against group leaders Serbia and friendlies against Turkey and Sweden, leaving Brueckner with a record of one win and two draws in seven games.

Reuters