Spain youth coach Inaki Saez says that the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has told him he will take charge of the national team for the next two years following Jose Antonio Camacho's decision to step down.

"The Federation have told me that I am the ideal person and that they want me to take the team right through to the Euro 2004 tournament in Portugal," Saez told Spanish sports daily Marca.

Camacho, in charge since 1998, quit on Tuesday 10 days after Spain's World Cup failure, indicating he had missed the daily involvement of coaching a club.

His decision appears to have caught the Federation on the hop and they had clearly not lined up a successor to replace the former Real Madrid defender.

Federation president Angel Maria Villar said that he had only found out about Camacho's decision to resign on Monday evening.

Saez's immediate concern as coach will be the qualification for Euro 2004 which begins in September. Spain have lined up a friendly in Hungary in August and will then face their first two qualification matches against Greece and Northern Ireland before the end of the year.

Ukraine and Armenia are the other teams in Spain's Euro 2004 qualifying group.

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