BERT VAN MARWIJK NAMED NEW DUTCH COACH

Bert van Marwijk will take up the position of national coach of the Netherlands this summer. Van Marwijk has agreed the terms of a contract with the Dutch football association (KNVB) to coach the Dutch team until the end of the nation’s World Cup 2010 campaign. A clause in Van Marwijk’s Feyenoord contract allowed the coach to talk with the KNVB. The official presentation is scheduled for 31 March, though Van Marwijk will remain at Feyenoord till season’s end.

‘This is the highest you can go as a coach,’ said Van Marwijk. ‘It’s a great prospect and a major challenge to be able to work with the best players in the Netherlands. It’s also come just at the right time, bearing in mind my age. And if the opportunity presents itself you have to take it. Fortunately, the players and management of Feyenoord feel I deserve this job. There are crucial weeks ahead in both league and cup. I want to be able to focus fully on Feyenoord in the next few weeks; I owe that to everyone at the club.’

‘On the one hand,’ said general manager Eric Gudde, ‘it’s a pity that Bert will be leaving us again this summer, but on the other hand we are especially proud that the KNVB sees our coach as the ideal national coach. We are grateful to Bert for the good work he has done here and we wish him every success with the national team after 1 July. Now everything’s settled, we are confident that he will finish the job at Feyenoord to the best of his ability. We now have the task of again finding the most suitable coach for our first team. We will go about that with the utmost care.’