Slaven Bilic is ready to risk the wrath of the Croatia FA by continuing his attempt to become West Ham United’s new manager while preparing the national team for a World Cup qualifying match against England. Bilic is adamant that he will not have a meeting with the London club before the game in Zagreb on Wednesday, but he has let West Ham know through intermediaries that he is interested and may be willing to speak to them on the phone.

Vlatko Markovic, the president of the Croatia FA, was furious at the timing of West Ham’s approach and accused England of mounting a dirty tricks campaign. “It’s typical of the sleaze in English football,” Markovic said. “For the story about West Ham wanting Bilic to come out now is very poor. We are very suspicious and unhappy as it is not the first time something like this has happened with England. There is no chance events at West Ham will damage us.”

Bilic takes a rather different view, insisting that West Ham’s interest reflects well on the whole of Croatian football. “It’s not frustrating, it’s brilliant to be linked with one of the clubs in one of the best leagues in the world,” he said. “It proves that my assistants, I and the players are doing something really well. It can’t affect our game or our determination not only for the game on Wednesday, but for this campaign. I have an open relationship with them, we have a laugh about it, they are coming to me and they say: ‘We are going to go with you’ [to England], so it’s nice.”

As of last night, West Ham had no plans to interview Bilic face to face before a report on each candidate, with recommendations, being considered by the board this evening or tomorrow morning. Gianfranco Zola had two interviews in as many days in Rome over the weekend, the first with Gianluca Nani, the Italian technical director, then Scott Duxbury, the chief executive. Interest in Roberto Mancini is fading because of a severance dispute with Inter Milan, while Michael Laudrup, the former Getafe coach, will be interviewed in London today.

Of the other candidates, Morten Olsen, the Denmark manager, and Gérard Houllier, the former Liverpool and Lyons manager, failed to show enough desire for the post.

West Ham hope to have a manager appointed in time to be in the stands away to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. His first match in charge would be against Newcastle United at home, a week later.