Van Persie and Sneijder solve issue on the phone

Thursday 02 October 2008

Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder spoke on the phone yesterday to clear up the media row about a free kick that Van Persie took in the game against Russia at Euro 2008.

Wesley Sneijder wanted to take the free kick, but when he put the ball down Van Persie stepped up and kicked the ball - over the goal.

According to Dutch magazine Voetbal International Sneijder had told their reporters that he absolutely needed to talk to Van Persie about the incident, as it was agreed prior to the game that he was the number 1 for free kicks.

Van Persie then reacted in the Algemeen Dagblad that he did not like the fact that Sneijder went public with his intentions and also claimed that there was no agreement about Sneijder being number 1.

As it turns out today the words of Sneijder have been blown up by the reporters.

Sneijder and Van Persie spoke on the phone yesterday and the air between them cleared now.

In the end it seemed that the two reporters of VI who went to Madrid to interview Sneijder had blown a short remark of the Madrid midfielder out of proportions.

After the interview they asked Sneijder about the free kick.

The former Ajax player said that when a possibility came up he would talk to Van Persie about it.

The reporters then took that insignificant remark, wrote a single article about it and quoted Sneijder saying he absolutely wanted a meeting about it with Van Persie.

The Arsenal forward was obviously surprised that Sneijder hadn't simply called him, reproached Sneijder with a lack of class and sad he didn't feel any need to discuss the matter with Sneijder after he had gone public with his intentions.

Van Persie also sad that the then Holland manager Van Basten had allocated both for the free kicks.

Van Basten - when asked about what the agreement was - said: "Sneijder was the man for the free kicks, but I also said that Van Persie could do it if they were to agree on that during the game."

Current Holland boss Bert van Marwijk will address the matter during his press conference on Friday.

He spoke to both players over the phone.

It will be up to him to make sure that the matter will not interfere with the qualification campaign for the 2010 World Cup.

As far as Sneijder is concerned it will not.

He has said before that he appreciates Van Persie as a player with whom he can play together very well.

However that will not happen during the two upcoming games against Iceland (11 October) and Norway (15 October), as Sneijder has only recently recovered from injury.