Back in the days, back in the 70s, the Dutch clubs used to dominate the football world. Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord all won big trophies and the clubs were as financially solid as they could be. The Dutch were entertained with world class football, world class players and world class competitions. Thirty years later and there’s a complete turnaround and the Eredivisie was close to going under due the financial crisis in 2008. Well not in 2008 straight away but a few years after. Budgets were cut, high profile players were let go, business structures were reorganized and future plans scrapped. Everything had to be done to save the football clubs from destruction. It started in 2010 when three major clubs were on the brink of bankruptcy. Feyenoord, Vitesse and FC Utrecht were all pretty much doomed, but all three were saved in different ways. At Feyenoord local businessmen formed an alliance and put in the money to save the club, but also asked for a big chunks of shares in the club to prevent mismanagement in the future. Vitesse was bought by a Georgian millionaire and partner of Abramovich, Merab Jordania, who then invested millions in the club and paid all the debts. And FC Utrecht was helped by local businessman Frans van Seumeren, who now owns the club. Three complete different strategies but three totally different outcomes. Feyenoord is now one of the healthier clubs in the Eredivisie. Low wages, loads of young talents in the first team and on top of that, still outstanding performances. In 2011-12 they even finished in second place and qualified for the champions league qualifiers. Conversely, in 2010 the future looked very bleak. A lot of Feyenoord legends had joined the club to bring back the glory and success, but to no avail. In fact, this caused the near destruction of the club as the transfer fees and wages were way above what the club could spend. Debts increased to such a level that bankruptcy was imminent. The all time low for the club's was reached on the 24th of October 2010. Feyenoord, with a dismantled team, was utterly humiliated by PSV. It’s one of the darkest moments in the history of the club, they got bashed, 10-0. [video=youtube;Xy0hI4nVTEE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy0hI4nVTEE[/video] Feyenoord managed to get back up after that defeat, and is now in a position that they managed to buy some players but did so with the utmost thrift. Just when things were looking up for the club, it got a smack in the face. This year was the year of the new stadium, De Kuip is almost a hundred years old, and when Feyenoord scores a goal and the crowd goes mental, the stadium bounces up and down. Literally - to such an extent that engineers say that it could collapse under the weight of the crowd. So the club launched plans to build a new stadium close by. It was supposed to bring the club to new heights, with 66.000 seats it was a lot bigger than the ‘old’ Kuip which has 51.000 seats. But the 200 million it was going to cost proved too high for the local county and backed out. Leaving Feyenoord with a stadium that may be loved by the fans, but is called a structural hazard by others. please log in to view this image Plans of new De Kuip FC Utrecht this season are again on the brink of bankruptcy. Well, it already is to an extent. The stadium Galgenwaard is already bust in some areas. But Van Seumeren’s pockets are depleted, and the businessman is now trying to get back his money through transfers and by cutting the wage bill. Half of last year’s team is gone and the replacements are from its own youth with barely any experience. Loaning Timothy Derijck from PSV and Steve de Ridder was signed on a free transfer but that’s about it. This season will be all about survival for FC Utrecht. And the same thing is happening to Vitesse. Merab Jordania saw two mayor players go, Van Ginkel and Bony, and got a lot of his invested money back. Money he is not willing to put back into the club. No reinforcements were bought, just two free agents got a contract to somewhat strengthen the squad. Vitesse has the ambition to get to the top of the Eredivisie but this season seems to be a step back for them. The financial wrecks in 2010 traversed different paths, and all three still exist. But after three years of austerity in the Eredivisie, the future for some clubs is still looking grim. NAC Breda, NEC Nijmegen and Roda JC are still reporting very poor numbers and this week FC Groningen reported it sold 2000 less season tickets, cutting its budget from 18 to 17 million a year. SC Heerenveen is now in complete crisis as the board of directors resigned, the club’s finances are a mess with massive debts and no one is in charge. In three years the club went from one of the most stable clubs in the history of the Eredivisie, to a club that is in financial turmoil and without guidance. The days of Cruijff and trophy winning seasons are now distant memories. Times of a world class league, something I will probably not see in my lifetime.
