Defeat costs Wales 5.9m

WALES soccer chief David Collins warned that his association would have to tighten their belts after the failure of Mark Hughes’ side to win their way to the Euro 2004 finals.

Wales lost agonisingly 1-0 at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium against the Russians, and the FA of Wales’ secretary general said: “This has cost us a minimum of Stg£3.5 million (5.9m).

“That is the prize money we would have got for qualifying. Now there will have to be a re-assessment on the financial side as this is going to have a major impact. It will not affect the squad, but there will have to be belt tightening,” he said.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has backed boss Hughes to the hilt as he has streamlined the Welsh squad, but everything was geared to reaching next year’s finals in Portugal. Now that dream has died, Hughes and the FAW are left to plan for the next World Cup qualifying campaign But Collins insisted that he expected Hughes to lead Wales into that campaign, despite the fact that the former Manchester United star is continually being linked with top club jobs.

Collins said: “We have had a fantastic championship. Eighteen months ago, we would have been delighted to have been in the play-offs.

“We have fallen at the last hurdle, so we have to regroup, see where we have gone wrong.

“I am sure Mark and the management team will reassess so that we can go forward into the World Cup 2006 campaign.

“Mark has made tremendous strides. Hopefully, he will take us forward so we can have another good shot at the qualifiers for 2006.

“He is contracted to us until then, and he has already said what he wants to do, and I am sure he will do that.

“We are tremendously stronger than when we started this qualifying group. We have finished second in the group rather than fourth, and we have had two tremendous play-off matches.” Scotland manager Berti Vogts insisted he was proud of his players despite seeing them slaughtered 6-0 by Holland. But Vogts insisted he had no desire to criticise a team that had defied the odds to beat Dick Advocaat’s Dutch in the first leg.

He said: “I told my boys this morning, ‘I’m very proud of you’ and after this, again, I am very proud of my players.

“We must learn from this style of football. That was international quality. The Dutch were great.” The German was also at pains to insist that the 6-0 scoreline was simply the result of an off day by his players on an occasion when top quality opposition lived up to their billing.

He said: “That is the best group we have. There is only a little bit of difference between the quality of the Netherlands and us, not more.” Vogts tipped the Dutch to make an impact in next summer’s finals.

He said: “Congratulations to one of the favourites for the finals in Portugal. This team was too strong for us. At the moment, we cannot play two matches in four days against such a strong team.”