African Nations Cup

Soccer great Van Basten leaves FIFA technical director role

Published Oct. 12, 2018 11:32 a.m. ET

ZURICH (AP) — Soccer great Marco van Basten is leaving FIFA after two years as technical director.

The former Netherlands forward is leaving amicably to be closer to his family in Amsterdam, FIFA said Friday.

Van Basten helped oversee the introduction of video review for referees at the World Cup in Russia, plus coaching programs to help member federations.

"Marco has played an important role to reconnect the institution with its technical community," said FIFA deputy secretary general Zvonimir Boban, a former teammate at AC Milan.

Van Basten was also closely linked to the "Play Fair" document published last year looking at radical ways of changing and improving the game, but which had little impact.