Bilic vows to stay on

Croatia manager to continue despite qualification failure

Last updated: 16th October 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Bilic vows to stay on

Bilic: Vows to stay on

Related links

Teams

Also see

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic has vowed to stay on as national team manager despite missing out on the World Cup.

Bilic, who took Croatia to the quarter-finals of the European Championship last year, was unable to prevent his side slipping to third in qualifying Group Six behind England and Ukraine.

But the 41-year-old boss blamed the poor run of results on a series of injuries, and has been backed by the Croatian Football Association to continue in his post.

"I believe in this group of players," he said. "We have the drive, the motive, and the obligation to ourselves and to the public and we have decided to stay at the helm of the national team.

"This qualifying cycle was marked by handicaps and injuries. Something of this scale is unlikely to happen one more time."

Bilic, who played in the Premier League for West Ham and Everton, has often been linked with a return to England as a manager.