Van Gaal to help in search for new Netherlands coach

FIFA to cover Coleman’s wages during recovery

AMSTERDAM, March 27, (RTRS): Louis van Gaal featured prominently as Dutch media speculated over possible coaches for the national team but the country’s football association (KNVB) wants him to help search for Danny Blind’s replacement, De Telegraaf reported on Monday.

Blind’s 20-month tenure ended after a 2-0 loss in Bulgaria on Saturday left the Dutch in fourth place in their World Cup qualifying group and facing an uphill struggle to reach next year’s tournament in Russia.

“We hope to have a new coach in place quickly but it won’t be ready in one week,” KNVB technical director Jean Paul Decossaux said on Sunday.

“A foreign trainer is also an option. Our list of candidates can be made up of whoever is going to take Dutch football forwards. That will undoubtedly include Ronald Koeman although we know he is also under contract with his club,” Decossaux added.

Koeman, manager of Premier League club Everton, has told Dutch media he is not available.

The 65-year-old Van Gaal has previously said that he has now retired from coaching. He has had two spells as Netherlands coach, taking the team to third place at the 2014 World Cup.

Since he left to join Manchester United, however, the Dutch side have been in freefall, failing to qualify for last year’s European Championship and in serious danger of not making the World Cup.

Everton Coleman’s

defender Seamus wages will be paid by FIFA while he recovers from a double leg fracture suffered during international duty with Ireland.

Coleman underwent a successful leg operation on Saturday following a wild challenge by Wales defender Neil Taylor, who was immediately dismissed during a goalless World Cup qualifier between the two sides last week.

The 28-year-old fullback is expected to miss the rest of the Premier League season and his wages will be covered by FIFA Club Protection Programme during that period.

Ireland manager Martin O’Neill said no time scale had been put on Coleman’s recovery. “I’m not sure, I would only be guessing,” O’Neill told reporters.

“Sometimes there are complications afterwards and injuries can be more prolonged, other times it can be clean and clear sailing.

The Ireland skipper is also unlikely to feature in the five remaining World Cup qualifiers over the next seven months, with a possibility of an additional playoff tie in November.

“It will take some time to heal, it’s a double break but it has been pinned up now and screwed in,” O’Neill added.

]Ireland, who slipped to second spot

Coleman

in qualifying Group D, next host fourth-placed Austria on June 11.

Soccer’s governing body FIFA said on Monday it had heard nothing official from Diego Maradona since the Argentine World Cup winner threatened last week to quit his ambassadorial role.

FIFA said its last official contact with Maradona had been when he took part in a draw for the under-20 World Cup in South Korea on March 15.

“There have been no updates from him since then,” said a FIFA spokesman.

Maradona told Argentine newspaper Clarin last Wednesday that he was angry over the Argentina Football Association’s (AFA) decision to appoint television presenter Marcelo Tinelli as head of its national teams committee.

Maradona told FIFA President Gianni Infantino in a telephone call that he would step down if the decision was not reversed within two days, the interview said.

The AFA is currently under FIFA intervention which, Maradona said, gave soccer’s governing body the power to reverse the appointment.

Last June, FIFA responded to a financial and governance crisis in the AFA by stepping in and putting it under the administration of a ‘normalisation committee’.

England will benefit from the wealth of experience veteran striker Jermain Defoe brings to their young squad, midfielder Adam Lallana said after the 34-year-old scored in Sunday’s 2-0 World Cup qualifier win over Lithuania.

Defoe, who was called up to the senior squad for the first time since November 2013, was only one of three players over the age of 30 to be included in the England’s team for the victory at Wembley.

“You can’t win things with just kids and inexperience and it is great to have someone like (Defoe) around the camp,” Lallana told British media.

“It is refreshing to see the hunger he still has. At times you think he is 23, 24 because he is that hungry and that driven to still improve.”

Lallana also saw no reason why Defoe, who has scored 20 goals in 56 appearances for England, cannot become a regular fixture for the country in time for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and midfielder Marouane Fellaini have both been added to an already extensive injury list for Belgium as they head to Russia for a friendly in Sochi.

A hip injury keeps the Chelsea goalkeeper out of the trip while Fellaini is struggling with a toe complaint, the Belgian football association said on Sunday.

Defender Laurent Ciman will also sit out the trip with a knee injury.

The trio join sidelined Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard and defender Thomas Meunier, who were ruled out of Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Greece where Belgium needed a late equaliser to salvage a 1-1 draw and keep intact their unbeaten record, and top place, in Group H.