Chile FA try to persuade Bielsa to stay
Reuters - Thursday 27 January 2011, 23:34
SANTIAGO - Chile's FA (ANFP) were deep in
talks with their World Cup coach Marcelo Bielsa on Thursday
trying to persuade the Argentine to stay in the job.
New ANFP president Sergio Jadue hopes to persuade Bielsa to
go back on a decision he took in November to quit if an
opposition ticket won the presidential election which it did.
"We want to inform you that the president of the ANFP
continues in talks with the objective of Marcelo Bielsa carrying
on," ANFP vice-president Mauricio Etcheberry told reporters.
Bielsa said the day before the November 4 election he could not
work under opposition candidate Jorge Segovia.
The Spanish-born Segovia beat incumbent Harold
Mayne-Nicholls, a FIFA official who had brought in the Argentine
as coach in 2007, and Bielsa looked set to leave.
However, the result of that election was declared null and
void because of a clash between Segovia's business affairs and
his position as president of first-division Union Espanola.
Jadue, a 31-year-old lawyer, won a second election earlier
this month and said he would hold talks with Bielsa after last
weekend's friendly away to the United States which looked set to
be the Argentine's last match in charge.
The 55-year-old Bielsa, extremely popular in Chile inside
and outside of football, steered the country to their first World
Cup since 1998 in South Africa last year. They reached the
second round after which he signed a contract extension.
He won over Chileans, generally wary of Argentines, from all
walks of live, notably business people, intellectuals and
politicians, with his work ethic and scientific methods backed
by good results on the pitch.
Shows of support for Bielsa became regular occurrences in
Chile after his decision to quit and national team players have
tried several times to get him to change his mind.