April 22, 2002

BUENOS AIRES, April 22 (AFP) -- The treasurer of the Argentinian football federation (AFA) admitted on Monday he could give no guarantees that Marcelo Bielsa would still be national coach at the World Cup finals.

Bielsa has called on the federation to find a solution to his contractual dispute as soon as possible and insisted that the four-year deal he signed in 1998, which pays him 70,000 dollars a month, be respected.

When the contract was signed, the peso was equivalent to a dollar but since the collapse of the Argentinian economy, the federation want the salary to be paid in pesos which have sharply declined in value, meaning Bielsa would effectively receive roughly a third of the sum he agreed.

AFA Treasurer Hector Dominguez said he hoped a solution could be found to ensure Bielsa remained in charge for the finals in South Korea and Japan, where Argentina are one of the favourites.

"At the moment I cannot give you any guarantees because I can't speak for Marcelo," Dominguez told Del Plata radio.

"But we are going to fix this problem because we are good people and there are no personal problems between us," he added.

Sources at the AFA also said Bielsa was owed 490,000 dollars in unpaid bonuses.

England, Nigeria and Sweden are Argentina's first-phase World Cup opponents in a tough-looking Group F.

Argentina is mired in an economic crisis that after 46 months of recession has left the country broke and some 22 percent of the workforce jobless.