Van Gaal to leave Barcelona as president acts to halt decline

The Barcelona coach, Louis van Gaal, is to part company with the Spanish league giants, bringing the Dutchman's second spell at the Nou Camp to a premature end.

Barcelona are currently in 12th place in Spain's top flight, just three points above the relegation zone. The Catalan club's directors met at the Nou Camp yesterday evening following Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Celta Vigo and came to the expected decision to part with Van Gaal. However, the Dutchman will remain in control of first-team affairs until a suitable compensation package has been agreed.

Van Gaal was a surprise choice as coach at the start of this season despite success in his first spell in charge, during which the Catalan side claimed two Spanish league titles, the European Super Cup and the Spanish Cup.

Barcelona's president, Joan Gaspart, was convinced that Van Gaal was the man to bring back the glory days and also close the ever-widening gap behind their arch rivals, Real Madrid. However, Gaspart's plans have failed in spectacular fashion.

Barcelona are 20 points adrift of the surprise league leaders, Real Sociedad, and 15 points behind Real Madrid.

Solace has come in the shape of the Champions' League, in which Barcelona are the only club to have a 100 per cent record and are near certainties to advance to the last eight. But it is the league form, coupled with the decisions to allow the likes of Brazil's World Cup winner Rivaldo and the Spanish international left-back Sergi to leave the club, that has forced Gaspart and his fellow board members to act.

Van Gaal forged his coaching reputation with Ajax in his homeland in the 1990s. With the Amsterdam club, he won the Uefa Cup in 1992 and the European Cup in 1995. He moved on to Barcelona in 1997 but left in 2000 to take over from Frank Rijkaard as the Dutch national coach. However, the Netherlands failed to qualify for last year's World Cup finals, and he returned to the Nou Camp last May.