NEWS ROUND-UP:"A BEAUTIFUL opportunity," was how Wim Koevermans described the role to which he has been appointed by the Football Association of Ireland, that of international performance director, the 48-year-old Dutch man's duties starting on the first day of September.
The FAI began their search several months ago, initially with a list of "60 to 80" potential candidates from "Britain and several European countries", according to FAI technical director Packie Bonner, before narrowing the list to eight, all of whom they met. The list was then whittled down to three, before Koevermans was offered the job.
Unveiled yesterday at FAI headquarters in Abbotstown, Koevermans, a non-playing member of the Netherlands 1988 European Championship-winning squad who was capped once at senior level by his country, has signed a four-year contract.
An employee of the Dutch FA (KNVB) for the past seven years at their academy, Koevermans moved into coaching at the age of 30 after ending a playing career, in 1990, that began with his home club FC Vlaardingen, before he spent eight years with Fortuna Sittard and two with FC Groningen.
Since then he has had coaching spells with RBC Roosendaal, NEC Nijmegen and MVV Maastricht, as well as a period working as assistant coach with the Dutch under-21s. While employed by the KNVB since 2001 he has also acted as Uefa technical observer at Champions League games for the past two seasons.
Koevermans will take charge of the FAI's new National Academy, the facilities for which chief executive John Delaney said yesterday will be completed "in two to three years", and will oversee the development of youth football in Ireland.
"If we are to compete seriously and consistently at international level we must have a high performance programme," said Delaney. "Because we work off a small reservoir of players there's an onus on us to ensure that the players going through our system get the opportunity to maximise their potential. As part of that, Wim will be working with the under-21 and women's international teams downwards and our emerging talent programme."
"I will travel a lot around the country, it's not like this (Abbotstown) is the castle and everyone must come to the castle," said Koevermans. "We have to go out and be on the pitch with them, meet the people, show them what we mean by high standards and high quality, give them training sessions, talk about the game. Organisation-wise we can do a lot.
"My job is all about football education. I will work with the group of managers of the international teams, we will look into what is required to make progress and to get ourselves to a higher level. We will try to get better players into our international teams so that, in the end, Ireland ends up in the European Championship and the World Cup."
One of his chief tasks, he said, would be to create the "environment" here that would dissuade footballers from moving to British clubs at a young age.
"In Ireland and also in the Netherlands we have players of 15 years of age going away to another country - it's not good if you move the kids away at such a young age, out of their social environment and bringing them to big cities, you have to be very careful. You have to create the environment for the kids to stay here so they know if they do they will learn a lot, that's very important."
Koevermans, who has had no contact so far with Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni, will be based in Dublin but his family will remain at their Belgian home.
"I got a tour of the building this week, I went from the orange side to the green side, leaving the Netherlands, coming to Ireland," he smiled."I am not here to say 'we bring the Dutch style', that's not the way. I work now for the Football Association of Ireland. Of course I am bringing my experience, but there are many things very good in Irish football."
