Sydney’s Daily Telegraph today claimed Advocaat had agreed to take on the Australia job and was set to start Down Under later this year.

But an FFA spokesman said today: “The search for a new national team coach continues.”

Advocaat is currently in charge at Russian club Zenit St Petersburg and is reportedly signed up with them until November.

The former Rangers, Holland and South Korea coach is one of a number of high profile names linked with the Socceroos job.

Other managers on the shortlist are believed to include ex-Liverpool coach Gerard Houllier, Pim Verbeek and Asian Cup-winning coach Jorgan Vieira.

Current Australia coach Graham Arnold has been told his tenure on the job will only be until a new manager has been found, but he now looks likely to be in charge for the upcoming friendlies against Argentina and China.

This morning the FFA said nothing had changed in their pursuit of the best man for the Australia job.

“These names seem to come up every couple of weeks,” said a spokesman. “But there is nothing to announce.

“We are on the record as having said the search continues for a new coach and nothing has changed.”

Advocaat took Holland to the quarter finals of the World Cup in 1994 before leading PSV to domestic success.

He introduced one-touch total football to Scottish side Glasgow Rangers and won the treble with them in his first season. But poor transfers and a revitalised Celtic ended his spell in Scotland.

He returned to take charge of the Holland side once more and got them to the semi-final of Euro 2004, but was criticised for the team’s poor performances and tactics. He quit the job amid a flurry of death threats from angry fans.

Advocaat was briefly UAE coach before taking the helm at South Korea for the 2006 World Cup, but failed to take them out of the group stage, and quit for his current post in Russia.