Van Hanegem to get fired soon?

Tuesday 23 December 2008

An early exit of Willem van Hanegem as coach of FC Utrecht seems imminent.

As an oil tanker on a collision course the club's owner Frans van Seumeren seems headed for a hard confrontation with 'de Kromme' (the Crooked).

Negative remarks of Van Hanegem about the fans of the club, about the Board and about Van Seumeren have rankled the millionaire.

"This is unacceptable. In the corporate world this would be an open application to get sacked. Football is emotion square 2, but you can not always hide behind that," an aggravated Van Seumeren said.

The owner has previously shown not to shy away from hard measures.

Van Hanegem is disappointed with the club's management and most of all owner Van Seumeren, and because of that he announced on Sunday he was going to quit as coach after this season.

He is angry most of all for being used as a scapegoat in the affair surrounding the sacking of four of his assistants.

Van Hanegem had hoped the club would go for the tactical approach on that matter but the owner pushed the measure through bluntly.

The coach is also annoyed by the fact he was promised an extended contract during that period and hasn't heard from the owner since.

The former Feyenoord and Holland midfielder expressed his annoyance in in interview with a Dutch newspaper and also addressed the matter in his weekly column, calling Van Seumeren a 'submarine'.

Van Seumeren made a name for himself when his company preserved the Russian atomic submarine Kursk and is hurt by Van Hanegem referring to him like that.

"Van Hanegem violates the fans, our board and our management and that is unacceptable. His language is uncalled for. When a player uses such language he gets penalized. As far as I am concerned the same goes for a coach. It's only natural that we will reconsider his position."

Van Hanegem distance himself from what he said in the news article, but Van Seumeren also gets the full load in Van Hanegem's weekly column in the Algemeen Dagblad.

"He gets very personal and I am disappointed with that. Of course you know you can some across situations such as these when you stick your neck out in football. The core of his criticism doesn't get to me, but I do not like violating people like this. Especially not when it happens towards our faithful supporters."