Former England international Peter Reid has agreed to become Thailand's national team coach and will sign a four-year contract next month, the country's soccer president said on Thursday.

Former Sunderland, Leeds United and Manchester City manager Red will start work on September 1 with the brief of guiding Thailand to their first World Cup finals in 2014.

"It is confirmed, we have agreed a deal," Worawi Makudi told Reuters on Wednesdayt after a meeting with Reid's agent.

"He is the one we wanted, he has a lot of experience and I'm confident we will have success with Peter in charge. His background in England as a coach and as a player will be invaluable to us."

Reid replaces Charnwit Polcheewin, who resigned last month when Thailand were eliminated from 2010 World Cup qualifiers after a campaign where they lost all but one of six matches.

Reid, who was recommended by the English FA, will travel to the Kingdom next month to sign the contract, and will also be tasked with setting up provincial youth programmes to develop future national team players.

It had yet to be decided whether Reid would be allowed to bring his own assistant, most likely to be former England defender Viv Anderson, said Worawi.

Thailand's previous foreign coaches have enjoyed only limited success, with several blaming their failure on cultural differences, intervention by federation officials and players' poor discipline.

Worawi said Thailand had long-term plans for Reid, who would be given plenty of time to prove his worth.

"I want to give him time to build the team and take them to a higher level," he said.

"This won't be easy, we have to give him a chance and that's why we have offered him a long contract.

"We have wasted time before, this time, we want to give ourselves the best chance," Worawi added.

Reid inherits a team of mostly local-based players from Thailand's semi-professional league, some of whom supplement their income with other jobs.