The committee urged the KNVB to “take a broad view and also talk to non-white people, who the KNVB thought might also be suitable for the position of national coach”, says Tan in The Telegraph. “And if they would reject it, they would do so with good motivation.”
‘Cheated’
According to Tan, the KNVB would also have wanted to follow the procedure, but nothing came of it in practice. “From day one it was clear that Frank would succeed Ronald Koeman. The rest was all a bit cosmetic, so the committee feels cheated.”
The committee itself deliberately did not nominate names, says Tan, in order not to interfere too much with the selection. In a letter to the KNVB, the committee pointed out the desired procedure. “Because we could imagine two or three colored candidates with whom it would be advisable to start a conversation.”
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Tan calls the conversation the KNVB had with Frank Rijkaard ‘window dressing’, or an action for the stage. “He has been used as an alibi: look at how we work with diversity. Nonsense, because it is common knowledge that Frank has not had the ambition to do anything in football for seven years now. “
According to Tan, the committee’s dissatisfaction has nothing to do with De Boer himself, but the problem lies with the procedure followed. “Just like Peter Bosz and Louis van Gaal, I think he is a top coach”, says the chairman and TV presenter. “And I really wish him the very best.”
Diversity KNVB
The Mijnals Commission was established last year in response to an incident with Excelsior footballer Ahmad Mendes Moreira, who was racially treated in an away match at FC Den Bosch. Tan and the other members of the committee, including Ruud Gullit, want to see more diversity within the KNVB.
“Roughly thirty to forty percent of KNVB members have a migration background,” says Tan, “but within the organization the percentage is less than five percent, in the top it is zero percent.”
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