Jol to take over as Hamburg coach

Dutchman Martin Jol will take over as Hamburg SV coach next season and has signed a contract through June 2010, the Bundesliga club announced on Wednesday.

The 52-year-old was sacked as coach of Tottenham in October after the English side won just one of their opening 10 matches in the Premier League and slipped to third from bottom.

Jol will replace compatriot Huub Stevens, who is stepping down at the end of the season and will take over at Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven.

"We are convinced that we have hired the right coach in Martin Jol," Hamburg Chief Executive Bernd Hoffmann said on the club's Web site (www.hsv.de).

With one match left in the Bundesliga, Hamburg are in fifth place and fighting for one of Germany's two UEFA Cup spots with three other clubs.

They are level on 51 points with fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg in sixth and VfB Stuttgart in seventh and play 10th-placed Karlsruhe SC on Saturday.

Hamburg said Jol's assistant will be 42-year-old Zeljko Petrovic, former coach of Dutch second division side RKC Waalwijk.

Jol played for clubs including Bayern Munich, West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City in the 1970s and 1980s, He will be presented to the media in Hamburg next week, the club said.