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Russian Football Union confirms Dick Advocaat leaving Russian team

Fursenko said the initiative in taking this decision belonged to Advocaat but he refused to specify any detailed reasons for it

MOSCOW, May 1 (Itar-Tass) — President of the Russian Football Union, Sergei Fursenko, has confirmed that Dick Advocaat will quit the position of chief coach of the Russian national team, says a report uploaded early morning Tuesday at the Union’s official website.

Reports appeared in the Russian media Monday saying Advocaat has no plans for prolonging his contract in Russia and will most obviously quit after the EURO’2012 championship.

Fursenko said the initiative in taking this decision belonged to Advocaat but he refused to specify any detailed reasons for it.

“In the course of talks, the Russian Football Union offered Dick Advocaat to take a joint decision on the prolongation of the contract after the European championship but along with it the coach had the right to take a decision on his own before the start of EURO’2012,” Fursenko said.

“We respect the decision he took before reporting it to the media,” he said. “We hope it won’t wield any bad impact on the Russian team’s performance in the championship.”

Advocaat took the position of chief coach of the Russian national team in 2010. He signed a contract for two years with an option to prolong it for another two seasons before expiry.

In the meantime, the Dutch sports news portal Voetbal International placed a report quoting Advocaat who said he will soon start coaching the Dutch club PSV.

He said the decision will most likely be taken this week.

“We’ve already coordinated the terms of the contract and I think all of it will take place this week,” Advocaat said. “The PSV has a good potential but still a lot of things are to be done there yet.”

He had a contract with the PSV from 1995 through to 1998.