Football coach Dick Advocaat has said he will not replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Feyenoord, the AD reported on Friday.

Advocaat, 71, has had one exploratory meeting at the Rotterdam club but has decided not to go any further.

‘It is a great honour to be asked but there is such negativity surrounding my possible appointment that I can’t see myself doing it,’ the paper quotes him as saying.

‘Feynoord does not want such negativity and neither do it,’ the current FC Utrecht coach said. In particular, television football shows had criticised the decision to ask Advocaat for the job and that had been reflected on social media, the AD said.

The AD says the Feyenoord board will meet later on Friday to discuss other options.

Advocaat, who previously worked as a mentor to Van Bronckhorst in Rotterdam, has turned down a three-year extension to his current Utrecht contract.

Van Bronckhorst said last month he would leave Feyenoord at the end of the season. Van Bronckhorst, who took the Rotterdammers to their first league title in 18 years in 2017, has told the club he is ‘ready for a new challenge’.