FFA close in on new coach - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

FFA close in on new coach

By Guy Hand 17/06/2010 10:56:46 AM Comments (0)

The Socceroos' quest for their next coach is on track to delivering an enticing selection of high quality candidates, says Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley.

Armed with a war chest - believed to be up to $6 million - to entice a top-class coach, Buckley said there had been a clamour for the position from coaches from around the world.

Dutchman Pim Verbeek will quit his post after the World Cup.

The FFA wants his successor in place ahead of the Asian Cup tournament in January next year, then to stay on for the 2014 World Cup campaign.

With a development structure heavily influenced by Dutch coaches and techniques, the smart money is on another Dutchman to succeed Verbeek.

But Buckley said a quality international field was starting to assemble, and more coaches are likely to become available and interested after the current World Cup.

"There has been an excellent response from many, many different coaches around the world," Buckley said.

"The calibre of that response has been extremely high. We're confident going forward we'll have the right candidate in place."

Buckley also said discussions last week with FIFA delegates about the merits of Australia's 2022 World Cup bid had been positive.

Australia did an abrupt about-face to pull out of the race for the 2018 tournament, focusing on 2022 after it became apparent a European bidder will get the nod for 2018.

Buckley said the withdrawal had earned FIFA's respect, and the sport's governing body publicly praised Australia for doing so.

The decision should help carry favour with Europe's eight members of the 24-man FIFA Executive Committee which will choose the 2022 World Cup host in December.

"Last week there were some opportunities to have discussions with people about our World Cup bid and that went very, very well," Buckley said.

"It was the right time (to pull out of the 2018 running).

"We did it in conjunction with FIFA and I think we were respected for the decision we made.

"We felt the timing was right. There's five months to go, we have to continue to convince the football family around the world that our bid is a strong one, a positive one."

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