Hamburg confirm van Marwijk

Former Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk is to take over at floundering Bundesliga side Hamburg, the club said on Monday.

The boss who took the Netherlands to the World Cup final in 2010 takes the post after a run of poor league results that has left Hamburg in sixteenth place, with four points out of six matches.

Van Marwijk - who had announced his arrival as Hamburg coach ahead of the club on Monday - resigned from the Dutch national side after the Netherlands lost all three of their games in the 2012 European Championship. As well as winning the UEFA Cup with Feyernoord, he also coached Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

"We are delighted that we won over Bert van Marwijk, a coach with vast experience who has proven his skills many times," Hamburg sports director Oliver Kreuzer said on the club website.

The Dutchman, who is to bring Roel Coumans with him as assistant coach, is due to take charge of his first training session on Wednesday, when he will also be officially presented to the media, the club said.

Hamburg's latest defeat came at the weekend when the side lost 2-0 at home to Werder Bremen. That followed a 6-2 drubbing at the hands of league leaders Borussia Dortmund.

While they have struggled in recent seasons, one-time European champions Hamburg are the only club to have played in Germany's top-flight every season since the creation of the Bundesliga in 1963.

rc/jr (dpa, AFP)