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.
Do you think the Europa defeat will have an impact on Utrecht? I watched a big junk of each leg and felt they totally expected to canter it, and ****ed it. They managed to get the tie won in the return leg then started pissing about, constantly attacking when all they had to do was avoid conceding. Is this gonna hurt them further? A team from Luxembourg should be no match for the Dutch.
Aye, what you saw was the direct impact of the financial crisis at the club. The club sold Van der Hoorn and lost Wuytens, Kali and Asare because there was no money to extend their contracts. So they are left with a a very mediocre squad. Loaning Timothy Derijck will solve the defence problems a tiny bit, but overall, their season looks like it's done before it even started.
They looked utterly appalling at the back mate, not individually, but as a unit, this was a team of part timers and they were going straight through them time after time, not with guile, with simple 15 yards passes. It's a shame, I've always quite liked Utrecht, for no other reason than I like the diagonal half kits. How are Feyenoord shaping up this year? One of my great pals is a die hard fan, and he insists they are a good bet to fight again, but he did even say that in the awful season that you mentioned when they were playing basically a youth team. As you alluded to though, blessing in disguise as so many of that team grew from it and now they are seeing benefits. Feyenoord fans, second to none in terms of passion & deep love for their club.
Feyenoord is by far he biggest club in The Netherlands looking at fanbase, even during the bad times De Kuip was always sold out, last year they were unbeaten at home during the season. Extremely loyal fans. This season they managed to keep the squad together and Ronald Koeman has something to prove, he is in the running to become the new manager of the national team. Louis van Gaal quits after the WC. So the pressure is on, but compared to Ajax, it will a long shot for them to win the championship this year.
Ajax have done incredibly well to keep the entire squad together, even Eriksen who it seemed certain would move, so that makes sense! I'm gonna get to De Kuip with Kenny this season, I'd love it to be for the Ajax game but I know that'll be tough for tickets, I didn't know the the new ground was completely over, thought it was just delayed. Can't help but think with them that bar de Vrij & Classie, they are 'good' rather than 'great', and I do think they are not as likely to score goals as Ajax, I will be amazed if Pelle can keep up what he did last year, amazed.
No support in the local county because on of the coalition partners said that the plans have no support with the fans. The county was supposed to backing half of the money that was going into the project. Feyenoord is still investigating if there is support for the plan but it's pretty much dead now.
So what happens? If De Kuip really is seen as dangerous, surely at some point it will lose it's UEFA certification, it's not as if they can ground share with Sparta at Kasteel that holds what 10k or something? Could be a huge issue for the club in the next few years I guess, could actually put them out of business. The plans for Nieuw Kuip looked amazing.
They're now thinking of renovating the stadium. But the club and the Dutch FA both agree that a new stadium is in order for the future. I think the new stadium will come as soon as the economy is back on it's feet. The construction industry is on it's last legs and it's the reason they are not fully committing funds for a project like this. Which in turn is the reason why the local county was asked to step in with guarantees.
They could have won it last year, they really could, the loss to Zwolle a few weeks from the end wobbled them when they would have been top with a win. The telling thing was that GD wise I think PSV were about 50 better off, crazy, and a sign that maybe they had a little fortune to have so many points. They won a lot from behind of course, which is always good.
PSV was the team to beat last season, scored a 103 goals in 34 games. Feyenoord was always going to go down at the end of the season due to the youth of their squad. Clasie, Boëtius, Vilhena, Martins Indi and De Vrij were all exhausted at the end of the season and most of them had injuries due to fatigue. Boëtius was even out for a month or two at the end. With a new year and possible more games, they look likely to qualify for the group stage in the EL, I can see it happening again this year.
Can you see them playing half a youth team in Europe, or will they maybe focus on that and rest players for the league. I guess the top 3 this season is nailed on to be Ajax , PSV & Feyenoord, nobody else has a shot really, so maybe focus on Europe? The, PSV have a totally new team so second could be possible, should be interesting at the top at least.
Feyenoord is not the youth team anymore of 2010. Immers(27), Mulder(24), Janmaat(24), Pelle(28), Mathijsen(33), Schaken(31), Vormer(25), Goosens(25) and Verhoek(26). It's almost 3 years older in average than PSV
Yeah, I understand that, I was saying maybe they will play some youth players in league games to help cope with the Europa league schedule?
There are some back ups, but they have a really thin squad. Leerdam and Mokotjo left and Rammstein came back from Excelsior. The Europa League is still big in The Netherlands so they will use their main team, back ups are usually used in the league cup. PSV tried to use a B team in the EL last year and got burned in the media and the fans were not too happy about it.
No mate, football in general is ****ed.. Any daft **** paying 100mil for a player, it's ruined.... Got mediocre players even at a club like SAFC, holding the club to ransom....
