Abu Dhabi: Henk ten Cate has said he turned down the chance to manage the Netherlands because without the full backing of his country’s Football Association the job would have been “impossible”.
Al Jazira’s Dutch coach was offered the opportunity to revive his nation’s ailing World Cup 2018 bid but feels he did not have the total support of everyone at the Dutch Football Association (KNVB).
“I had a kind of discussion with the federation and that made me decide not to do it. There is nothing to do with money or whatever, absolutely not but I didn’t feel fully supported,” said the Al Jazira coach, who was appointed boss at the Abu Dhabi club last year and has won this season’s Arabian Gulf League (AGL) title for his side.
The KNVB on Tuesday confirmed the appointments of Dick Advocaat, 69, as coach for the third time — with Ruud Gullit as his assistant — after the sacking of Danny Blind.
Blind lost his job after a 2-0 loss to Bulgaria left the Netherlands fourth in their World Cup qualifying group.
The team also failed to reach last summer’s European Championships.
After the appointment of Advocaat — who previously had a brief spell in charge of the UAE in 2005 — KNVB technical director Hans van Breukelen said: “Advocaat is the right man to get the Dutch back on track for the showpiece tournament in Russia,” adding that claims by Ten Cate that he was promised the role only for the offer to be withdrawn later were not true.
“I’m surprised that Henk had the feeling that he would be named head coach. Henk also knew that I could talk to Dick. The moment Fred Rutten dropped out of contention as assistant, it was clear that Henk ten Cate would not be the head coach,” Van Breukelen had said.
Ten Cate, however, insisted: “I think when you take an important job like this, then everybody must stand behind you or else it is not going to work. It was the same commitment I took here with Jazira.”
Ten Cate added that with half of the people supporting him and the other half not, it would have his work “not only difficult but impossible”.
A number of Dutch fans and former national players, such as Pierre Van Hooijdonk, the former Celtic, Nottingham Forest and Feyenoord striker, believed ten Cate should have been given the role.
But the Al Jazira coach said: “People have to believe in you and I didn’t have the feeling that everyone was supporting me and that’s why I decided not to take the job and withdrew.
“To be frank some people were happy with it and the rest regretted that I did so but this is life and football. Everything is in the open and what happens next you don’t know.
“My time in Al Jazira was an exciting one and maybe it is extended, let’s wait and see.”
