Farina stays as Sydney FC A-League coach Sydney FC have pinned their faith in coach Frank Farina by extending his contract for another two A-League seasons. The Sky Blues on Thursday announced the former Socceroos coach had signed a new deal what would keep him at the club until the end of the 2014/15 season. The 48-year-old took over in November as interim coach after Ian Crook stepped down citing the pressure of the job. In that time, Farina has taken the Sky Blues from the bottom of the ladder and into the top six ahead of Saturday's clash with Adelaide. It is Farina's first permanent A-League coaching deal since being sacked as Brisbane Roar coach in 2009 for drink-driving. He has since worked as coach of Papua New Guinea and a technical director of the Oceania Football Confederation, and he thanked the Sky Blues for giving him another chance. "Three months ago, I was given a football lifeline by Sydney ... and when I got the phone call in Papua New Guinea, realising it was Sydney FC, it was a no brainer to accept the challenge," Farina said. I fully understood the circumstances coming in ... where we were placed and what lay ahead of us but it was just too good an opportunity to refuse. I think all the staff, the club and the players have responded magnificently thus far and we're still in with a chance to hopefully make the finals this year. For the owners and the chairman and the board to show this faith in me after three months, it's a great privilege and an honour to accept it. But my immediate focus is the next seven games - in particular, the next game against Adelaide - and that's purely what we'll be focusing on. The ex-Australian coach has quickly made an impact on the squad, signing Joel Griffiths, Tiago Calvano and Jarrod Kyle, as well as releasing Jason Culina after clashing with him at training. Sydney FC chairman Scott Barlow said the Sydney board unanimously agreed Farina had done a great job since his appointment and was confident he would continue to do so. "Frank has done an outstanding job under tough circumstances since he arrived at the club three months ago and we believe he can continue to take the team forward into next season and beyond," Barlow said. We believe now is the ideal time to make this appointment as it enables us to accelerate our player recruitment for the 2013/14 season. With seven games remaining in the regular season, we are confident that under Frank's guidance, we can finish the season strongly and qualify for the finals.