herl;anFIFA has removed the Netherlands from their Rio de Janeiro hotel allegedly to make room for corporate sponsors.
The Netherlands play Wednesday in the World Cup semi-finals against Argentina and if victorious would play in Rio on Sunday.
The Dutch have used the Caesar Park hotel in Ipanema as their base of operations from the beginning of the World Cup, but if they were to advance to Sunday’s championship, they would be relocated to one of the two hotels set aside for teams playing in the championship.
The controversy arose because the rooms have allegedly been reserved for FIFA corporate sponsors.
“The situation is not… that we’re throwing them out of the hotel,” said FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer to reporters.
“It was a decision in which they defined the date when they will end their team base camp.”
Federation president Bert van Oostveen complained to the Dutch media about his team being uprooted before a potential championship match against the host nation.
“It’s just a shame that this should happen,” van Oostveen said.
“The players are used to the hotel and then they might have to make way for the biggest game of their careers.
“I think it is not in the interests of football that athletes must give way.”
