Costa Rica coach learned from Dutch master
Rio de Janeiro: At this point in the World Cup, the Dutch know plenty about Costa Rica, once one of the surprise packages of the tournament.
What they may not have heard is that Costa Rica’s Jorge Luis Pinto learned his coaching from the Dutchman who invented ‘total football.’
Pinto, a well-travelled Colombian, studied at the University of Cologne early in the 1980s when Dutch coach Rinus Michels was coaching the city’s Bundesliga club.
“In those years I spent my time watching him training and talking to him. When I didn’t have classes, I went to see the club practice. I saw many things and learned a lot,” he said.
Michels was a good teacher, a few years later he would lead the Netherlands to its one and only international title, the 1988 European Championship, having pioneered the ‘total football’ approach, where players can change their positions during a game.
Now Pinto aims to stop the Dutch taking another step towards their first world title when his Costa Rica team meets the Netherlands tomorrow in the quarterfinals at Salvador’s Arena Fonte Nova.
It is not only Pinto who knows the Dutch game well. Bryan Ruiz had a successful spell with FC Twente before joining Fulham and now plays at PSV Eindhoven alongside likely Netherlands starter Georginio Wijnaldum and super-sub Memphis Depay.
Ruiz said he has shared what he knows about the Dutch players with his coach. “Pinto asked me about it and I provided a bit of analysis of the ones I know,” he said. (AP)
‘FIFA member behind illegal Cup ticket sales’
Rio de Janeiro: Football’s powerful governing body came under renewed scrutiny after a Brazilian police chief said a FIFA member provided thousands of World Cup tickets sold illegally at games for millions of dollars.
Police commissioner Fabio Barucke said “someone from FIFA” and “an intermediary from Match Hospitality”, FIFA’s ticket agency, had channelled the tickets onto the black market.
The FIFA figure, whom police are trying to identify, is believed to be staying at the Copacabana Palace, a luxury Rio de Janeiro hotel used by some FIFA hierarchy at the World Cup, Barucke told reporters.
The scandal is the latest to hit FIFA, which is already battling allegations that members accepted bribes from a Qatari football official to secure support for the emirate’s campaign to get the 2022 World Cup finals.
Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested 11 people accused of selling tickets that may have been obtained through a contact at football’s governing body.
The tickets are normally reserved for sponsors, football federations, players and non-government organisations.
A police investigation dubbed “Operation Jules Rimet” after the former French FIFA president was launched without FIFA’s knowledge, the police chief said.
Following the arrests, “we are now calling for FIFA’s assistance to help us identify this FIFA person, a foreigner staying in the Copacabana Palace hotel,” Barucke said. (AFP)