Dutch FA chairman Bert van Oostveen’s has given his reaction after his countries failure to qualify for Euro 2016.

  • By James Rowe

imageVan Oostveen has come under huge criticism over the past year for the KNVB’s decision to appoint Guus Hiddink, and his successor Danny Blind.

After the 3-2 defeat to the Czech Republic on Tuesday which sealed Netherlands exit from the 2016 Euros, Van Oostveen spoke to NOS reporter Bert Maalderink.

Below is a transcript of the interview:

BM: “Manager Danny Blind really wants to stay on as manager. Can he?”

BVO: “Yes.”

BM: ”Why may he stay on?”

BVO: ”Because separate the enormous disappointment that tonight is building and I think that we can all see what is wrong. We began with a relatively young team in the qualifying rounds and our failure to qualify is painful for us and the fans for the KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Association) that we will not be in France. But you can’t walk away from the things. Blind must stay.”

BM: “The new manager did not do it better than the predecessor. Then you think is he (Blind) not damaged by this. Is it not risky?”

BVO: ”No because of what I just said. We have started a process together where we now know that everything that could go wrong did from game one until the last game. Symptomatic of the whole qualifying round. But we also know what we are doing. We have taken the risk to say that we begin with this staff. This staff are not only tasked with renewing a team but also molding a team for the future. The national team is following the trend of (Dutch) club football that has not been doing well for a long time. We take responsibility and that’s why this staff must stay.”

BM: ”In football it is also the case that there will come a lot pressure from the public and the press. Will you be able to see this through?”

BVO: ”Yes because we know internally where we are and it is very easy after a 2nd place in 2010 World Cup or 3rd place in 2014 not to change. But we stated in 2014 that it is not going well with Dutch football. You see that the current trends are not good. That has been shown in these qualification games. We have to be realistic that we have not been higher than 3rd in our group. That does not belong to Dutch football. It is very disappointing but we must look ahead. In September we begin the World Cup qualifiers away against Sweden a very difficult group with France, Bulgaria. It will not be easy and we know we have more of a chance with that than at this moment in time. We have no choice we have to build.”

BM: “But another manager can also build. That’s possible right?”

BVO: “That is possible but we are not going to do that.”

BM: “What about your own position? Comments will also be said about that.”

BVO: “Bert let’s be honest. There is always pressure on the chairman of the Dutch FA and at this moment in time it is much more heavy than it ever was before. (Then in English he said, “If you can’t stand the heat, Get out of the kitchen”). That belongs with such a position and the disappointment that the Dutch public have that we have not qualified I fully understand it.”

BM: ”You have to take responsibility too.”

BVO: ”Correct and we take responsibility because we are going to build and construct towards the future because Dutch football needs it and we will do it all together.”

BM: “Ministers resign even though they are not solely responsible. They take responsibility. You don’t do that?”

BVO: ”But this is not politics. This is football, Bert.”

BM: ”They are close to one another.”

BVO: “Not in this case. In this case we know where we are and believe me if I or others thought that I was the cause of this I would have already resigned so that we still had a chance to qualify. But apparently that is not the case.”




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James Rowe (696 Posts)