Focussed, honest, prickly, kind, funny and ultimately successful - Pim Verbeek was all those things
I was saddened to learn on Friday morning of the death on Thursday 28 November from cancer of former Socceroos coach, Pim Verbeek. He was only 63 years of age.
He was a man who was focussed on what he was required to do – in our instance, qualify for the 2010 World Cup – and would take no prisoners in pursuing that. But he was also kind, wise and funny.
I was standing at the back of the room at his first media conference on 23 January 2008 to announce the 39-man squad under consideration for the World Cup qualifier against Qatar when he made the now infamous comment about training in the second division in Germany being better than playing in the A-League. There were audible gasps throughout the room.
As soon as he said it, I knew that would be the take-out of the media conference, when it should have been on our first match of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign and numerous points of interest.
They included the 17 year gap between debutant James Holland (then with Newcastle Jets) who was selected by Verbeek as an 18-year-old and then 35-year-old Mark Schwarzer; the fact that each of the eight A-League clubs had representatives in the squad; Newcastle Jets provided seven names; and it was the first time twins – Adam and Joel Griffiths – had been selected in a Socceroos squad. It was also in the days when players such as Mark Viduka and Scott Chipperfield were options but were left out due to timing or injury.
But no. It was all about training in the second division in Germany.
The A-League clubs were furious with CEO Ben Buckley and me as Head of Corporate and Public Affairs – making the assumption that we actually knew Pim was going to say that, as if everything is scripted!
Pim said in his defence that he just being honest; CEO Ben Buckley told him that it was totally unhelpful; and I said the A-League clubs and players had every incentive to prove him wrong.
For Pim, many in football never forgave him for his frank assessment of our local game and it set the tone for his relationship with them. I recall many conversations around this point with many football friends, some of whom found it refreshing in its honesty; others of whom, such as the late Michael Cockerill, who remained risible about it well after Pim had left Australia.
Pim was always determined to get what he wanted.
There was the time when the Socceroos were returning to Australia from the UAE and were split over two returning flights to Sydney for the forgettable match against China. Pim was booked on the slightly earlier flight by team manager, Gary Moretti, but he didn't want to go on that one and 'missed' it. Moretti was on that flight and could not be contacted.
Pim then turned-up to board for the next flight, only to be told by staff of Emirates Airlines that he was on the wrong flight and his flight had departed 90 minutes beforehand. Even though he was a top level frequent flyer, they couldn't help him as the flight was absolutely full in every travel class.
Instead of admitting his role in this, he started to make a scene at the gate, claiming the airline had not called the flight – they had. The airline staff were upset trying to explain there were no seats left in any class. Players were streaming past their coach; journalist Tom Smithies, for whom I had arranged an upgrade to Business Class, waved at Pim as he walked by. Buckley hovered by not saying anything other than telling me to “fix it” – so I did.
With the help of an old and good friend who was a senior executive at Emirates Airlines, I was able to give my seat to Pim and the airline allowed me to sit in a jump seat at the front of the aircraft. For 14 hours. This was 2008. No in-flight entertainment in a jump seat. No light to read a book. No in-flight WiFi. No ability to stretch legs. No cushioned seat.
But at least Pim was happily esconced on the flight he wanted in a decent seat and he calmed down as soon as he got on board. I walked through the cabin during the flight to find Pim, Buckley, Smithies, John Boultbee, team staff and the players all sleeping soundly in their flat beds. (One man from Yemen in First Class took pity on me and offered me his suite, but I declined).
I later told Frank Lowy this story, astounded that not one of the 15 men on board had offered me an hour in their seat. His reaction? “What do you expect? You know the type of men they are.” Ouch.
Pim could also be a prickly character.
For example, when the perennially image conscious Buckley urged me to tell Pim he had to have a hair cut – and being the task-oriented soul that I am, I arranged it – the folically-challenged Pim was most upset and he would not talk to me for several days. His charming wife, Anneke, called me to laugh about it as she had been saying the same thing to him.
In June 2009, in the midst of World Cup qualifiers in Dubai, I had to travel there to get the Socceroos squad recorded for a video package we were putting together for the World Cup Bid launch at Parliament House in Canberra the following week just prior to the World Cup qualifier against Japan. Instead of having 5-10 minutes of the players' time over one or two afternoons during their break, he insisted we could only do two to three players a day. Something that could have taken one or two days work at the most became almost a week. It was such a waste of time and infuriating, but what the head coach says in a World Cup qualifying campaign is what goes.
Tim Cahill had played in the FA Cup Final for Everton that year and was late into camp. On the morning he arrived, he was under orders to spend the afternoon in his room that he shared with captain Lucas Neill, rather than 10 minutes in filming. But being Tim, he was desperate to be in the package and knew we had to leave the next day.
What did Tim do? He left his room where he was playing computer games, not sleeping – only to run into Pim in the corridor.
Pim strode downstairs to our filming room, with Tim trailing in the background, while Pim went ballistic in front of Tim, another player being filmed and the two-person film crew. He didn't go ballistic at his star player, or Lucas, his room mate captain who knew about it, but me – who had not even known Tim was on his way to the film room until he appeared with Pim. It was appalling behaviour on Pim's part.
However, Pim could also admit when he got it wrong. I recount in my book, Whatever It Takes – the Inside Story of the FIFA Way his reaction a week later at the launch of the World Cup bid in Canberra.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. Speak of the devil. It was Verbeek. He is another very tall man, quite fit looking. He was smiling apologetically at me.
‘Bonita, now I know what you were doing and I just wanted to say you did a wonderful job. I am sorry I was so rude to you. What you did today really touched me,’ he said. Considering his own country was also bidding, he sounded genuine.
If Ben had been eating anything, he would have choked on it, such was the rarity of Verbeek apologising to anyone – and he upset plenty in his tenure in charge of the national team.
Many months later, when the management of FFA was essentially at the beck and call of Australia's three international consultants for the World Cup Bid and would do nothing without their tick of approval, like me, Pim could see the depths we were leading ourselves into. In 2010, we ran into one another at a Manly (Sydney) cafe, and he told me I was “better off out of there as it is absolute chaos”.
Internally, Pim was on the outer throughout the World Cup bid campaign because he and then National Technical Directors Rob Baan and later Han Berger were deemed by our infamous consultants as possibly 'spying' on us because they were Dutch and Holland were joint bidders with Belgium for 2018 (no, this isn't a joke).
Since I left, we have been in touch on a few occasions. He wrote a very kind and encouraging note to me at an especially rough time at the hands of FFA and FIFA when no-one in this country in football extended such thoughtfulness. I was touched last year when he wrote again to say he had purchased my book and “… really enjoyed your searing honesty and resilience Bonita. Never give up.”
Pim Verbeek qualified Australia for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 Asian Cup. Andrew Howe's Encyclopedia of Socceroos shows that he was in charge of the national team for 33 games from 2008-2010 for a W18-D9-L6 record.
For me, the most memorable one of those matches was against Bahrain in November 2008, when we were outplayed and listless in the Manama heat and humidity, until now FFA Board member, Mark Bresciano, scored the only goal in the 90th minute of the game. Pim was pleased to have the three points but he was the first to say after the match that we didn't deserve to win while simultaneously congratulating Bresciano for having the tenacity to score.
Pim had a long managerial career starting in 1981 at the relatively young age of 25 coaching club and national teams. Prior to joining Australia, he had been assistant national team coach with South Korea. After Australia, he managed the Morocco U-23 team and Oman.
Pim Verbeek is survived by his loving wife, Anneke, and their three daughters and grandchildren. Rest in peace Pim.