Dutch to bloom on home soil

'Drive to succeed'
The Dutch will play host to the tournament after successfully staging the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, and De Haan believes their budding talent can only benefit from competing on home soil. "Knowing they will be playing a tournament at home will give our young players enormous drive to succeed in the next year and a half," said the former Heerenveen SC coach.

Olympic target
"The big advantage is that we qualify automatically for the European Championship, and can immediately set our sights on the 2008 Olympic Games," he added. The 2007 U21 showpiece doubles as an Olympic qualifying event, giving the Dutch a great chance to appear in Beijing, where the U23 format will allow a number of full internationals to join the squad.

'Pretty good team'
"All the players who represented us at last year's FIFA Under-20 tournament are candidates for Olympic selection, along with some players who are already in the senior squad and will probably go to the FIFA World Cup in Germany," said De Haan. "If you add players like Nigel de Jong, Wesley Sneijder and Ismaïl Aissati to last year's World Youth Championship squad, then you have a pretty good team."

'Excellent opportunity'
Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) president Mathieu Sprengers echoed De Haan's sentiments, saying: "I can hardly believe we have been chosen to organise another big football event in 2007. This is an enormous stimulus for Dutch football and an excellent opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time since 1952."

Knock-on effect
KNVB general secretary Harry Been was tournament director of the 2005 FIFA jamboree, the success of which he believes has had a knock-on effect. "The quality of the facilities, the professionalism of everyone involved, and the enthusiasm of the supporters have made a huge international impression," he said.

Final four
Four venues will be chosen to hold matches from an initial list of 12, and UEFA has already inspected the stadiums of Heerenveen, FC Emmen, De Graafschap and BV Vitesse. In the next few months, the KNVB will propose its final list of four to UEFA.