Russian football team needs homegrown coach - sport minister

The Russian national football team should be trained by a Russian coach, sports minister Vitaly Mutko said on Wednesday as Guus Hiddink's long-term future with the side remained unclear.

The Russian national football team should be trained by a Russian coach, sports minister Vitaly Mutko said on Wednesday as Guus Hiddink's long-term future with the side remained unclear.

"I am in favor of Russian-born coaches, people who understand our way of thinking," Mutko said.

"We should somehow develop from within. To develop a coach in any type of sport means leaving a legacy. A foreign trainer is only interested in the national team and will not share his experience with the whole country," he added.

The statement comes as Hiddink's future as trainer of the Russian national team remains in doubt after a recent meeting with new Russian Football Union president Sergei Fursenko in Moscow.

Hiddink's some $8 million a year contract runs out in July.

"Guus has a contract until the summer," Fursenko was quoted as saying by the Sovetski Sport paper after the meeting. He refused to comment on whether the 63-year-old trainer would lead Russia's Euro 2012 campaign.

Despite failing to take Russia to this summer's World Cup in South Africa, Hiddink has hauled the Russian team up to number 13 in the latest FIFA ratings.

Hiddink took over the Russian team in the summer of 2006 and worked wonders to transform the fortunes of a side that had become something of a national joke, taking it to the Euro 2008 semi-finals and making a genuine world star of diminutive forward Andrei Arshavin. He was hailed as the saviour of the Russian game and there were calls for him to be granted honorary citizenship. A number of children were also named after him by enthusiastic fans.

However, he was criticized throughout the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign for spending too little time in Russia and relying too heavily on the players who had served him so well at Euro 2008. Matters came to a head in a crucial play-off against tiny Slovenia when a lackluster and tired Russia crashed out after a 2-1 win at home was cancelled out by a 1-0 defeat in Maribor, much to the dismay of the watching Russian political and business elite.

FRANKFURT/VANCOUVER, February 10 (RIA Novosti)