The Dutch are Taking Over Australian Football

The Socceroos finally have a new manager and it’s…. another Dutchman. Pim Verbeek is the man chosen to guide the Aussies through their first Asian World Cup qualification experience, with the obvious goal of being amongst the 32 teams taking up hotel space in South Africa come 2010. Fellow Dutchman Guus Hiddink is arguably Australia’s most successful coach ever, leading them to a fruitful World Cup 2006 experience, while Dick Advocaat is possibly the least popular man in Australia right now after signing a contract to manage the team and then leaving them high and dry when he received a better financial offer. Sample quote: “It was not double, it was more. Much more.” But why is the fate Aussie soccer suddenly so inescapably tied to the Netherlands?

Rob Baan is another Dutchman knee deep Down Under, as the U-23 coach and Australia’s technical director. It could just be a case of longing for Guus and so offering the job to anyone with a similar accent or it could be that all these Dutchmen are connected so once one is involved it opens up the network. It’s as if the Football Federation Australia accepted Holland’s friend request on international management Facebook when they hired Guus Hiddink, thus giving them access to all his friends. And if Australia’s Asian Cup performance under Graham Arnold is anything to go by, then the Socceroos need all the international help they can get.