Dutch chiefs open to foreign candidates in national team manager hunt

The Netherlands' football chiefs are already searching for their next national team manager after ousting Danny Blind on Sunday, and are open to appointing a foreigner to the helm for the first time since the 1970s.

Eighteen managerial changes - all involving Dutch personalities - have passed since the country's last handler from outside the land of tulips and canals, Austria's Ernst Happel, stepped down in 1978.

Now, after Blind's 20-month reign has left the Netherlands in severe danger of missing back-to-back major tournaments, the KNVB hierarchy is prepared to read curriculum vitaes from coaches with more varied experience.

Related: Blind fired by Netherlands with 2018 World Cup berth in jeopardy

"We hope to have a new coach in place quickly but it won’t be ready in one week," KNVB technical director Jean Paul Decossaux told Reuters on Sunday.

He added: "A foreign trainer is also an option. Our list of candidates can be made up of whoever is going to take Dutch football forward. That will undoubtedly include Ronald Koeman, although we know he is also under contract with his club."

Everton tactician Koeman quickly declared himself out of the running for the post, and although Louis van Gaal - the ex-Manchester United manager who led the Netherlands to third place at the 2014 World Cup - is linked to the position, it's understood that he's instead assisting with the search.

Saturday's disastrous 2-0 defeat to Bulgaria left the Netherlands fourth in UEFA World Cup qualification Group A, six points adrift of first-placed France and three points short of Sweden in the play-off position.