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2 Responses to “ Code Oranje: Holland In Crisis”

Karl Darkins

February 3rd, 2008 8:13 pm

Scott, this piece seems to be an accurate account of the “fall from grace” of the Dutch Eredivisie. What we are seeing in the Dutch game has already occured in what were powerful domestic competitions around the World. We don’t have to look far from the Eredivisie to see how this problem has developed even further. The Belgian League may not be the most glamourous of competitions, but in the shape of Anderlecht, Club Brugge, and KV Mechelen, Belgium have provided teams that have been successful in European Cup competitions in years past. Today although KV Mechelen are no longer a force in Belgian football, Anderlecht, and Club Brugge most definately are. However on the European stage both of these teams have been reduced to “whipping boys”, and barely register on the radar. This can only be attributed to a decline in Belgian football as a whole, I am not suggesting that Belgium no longer produce good footballers, but I do feel that the Belgian FA, and the orgainisers of professional football in Belgium have failed to generate the income to further develope football in Belgium. Belgian football does not possess an attractive footballing product that appeals to a global TV audiance. Therefore the clubs and players of Belgium have suffered as a result. Todays players no longer seem to be attracted to clubs for the history the club has created, the one and only factor that draws players is cash! The best football in the World is most definately not played in the English Premier League, but the Premier League themselves through an aggressive marketting campaign, and ruthless negociation have produced a product that ia able to generate more money than any other domestic football competition. As money is shared equally amongst clubs in the Premier League, clubs of a lower standing are able to attract prestigous players from elsewhere using the allure of money. I feel the blame for the demise of football outside the wealthy leagues of Western Europe lies in a number of areas. We cannot blame organisations like the Premier League for being filthy rich. So other leagues around Europe must be more dynamic, and aggressive when it comes to the sale of there TV rights. UEFA, for many years now a UEFA controlled by Lennert Johansson has simply danced to the tune of of the wealthy leagues and clubs. The Champions League has become monopolised by teams from 3 countries (England, Italy, and Spain), Allowing 4 teams from each of these coutries is ludacris. Last years final was played by 2 teams that did not even challenge for there own domestic league competition, and they call themselves the best in Europe? Today’s president must reduce the number of teams from the wealthy leagues that can enter the CL, and not reward mediocre teams from the powerful leagues. Furthermore, teams from poorer leagues must gain an easier path to the group stage of the competiton so they are able to generate the cash to be able to develope as clubs. This will initially weaken the CL, but in years to come a far greater number of clubs will actually be able to go on and win the CL outright, as an emphasis will be placed on playing in the CL rather than earning massive wages at mid-table teams. Before money distorted football so much teams like Steaua Bucharest, Red Star Belgrade, and PSV Eindhoven all conquered Europe, today this achievement is nigh on impossible for teams of this ilk. Finally and most importantly the attitude of players must drastically change. Todays footballer is motivated by money and a celebrity status. Pele recently said “that a player will be kissing the badge of your team today, and then kissing the badge of another team tomorrow if they pay him more”. The only way I can see this problem ending is a FIFA wide salary cap. This will stop the ‘artificial’ movement of players from one club to another for the reason of financial gain. Players then may actually play for a club that they want to represent, rather than be at a club that will pay them the most money. Combine this with more teams from other countries being represented in the CL we might see an even spread of the Worlds best footballers in all leagues throughout Europe. My ideas may be pie in the sky, but something has to change to benefit the footballing world as a whole. I support any movement that may create a level playing field for clubs from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Holland, Belgium, and so on. And lets not forget the many famous clubs from South America that battle crippling debt, and lose virtually the entire first team when the European transfer window opens.
C. Hartsuiker

February 4th, 2008 3:41 pm

I agree with both of you, and see that Cash has become too important. This is why I support PSV Eindhoven and Arsenal FC, and despise teams like Chelsea, Man. United and Liverpool (even if they weren’t arsenal’s natural rivals). PSV and Arsenal are both clubs that aren’t very active on the transfer market usually, whereas the other 3 that make up the big four in the U.K. spend crazy amounts of money buying lots of players. The inevitable case in point i’m going to make lies with (C)Ashley Cole. He left the club he supported from a child (Arsenal) for Chelsea, because they would pay him a lot more there.
The difference between the clubs i support and their rich counterparts is that PSV raises players in their youth academy (e.g. Afellay, Aissati and BakkaL)or buy young players who play average football, and train them to become better players (Robin v. Persie was avg at Feyenoord, spent a year in London and became a top-class striker, or Gael Clichy who is arguably one of the best left-backs of this moment whose name is actually still hardly famous). The quality of their football is also much better than that of Chelsea or even Ajax. The problem is, in the modern world, a large number of players see cash as the more important factor… And you can tell by the teams they choose what they find more important.

Nevertheless, wrappin it up for whoever isn’t bothered to read all that stuff above, the richer the richer leagues get, the poorer the poorer leagues become, and therefore you may very well say that as an example, the Premier League, is destroying the nearby league Eredivisie of Holland with their cash. I respect teams like PSV and Arsenal because they are non-conformists in that sense. (and theyre just way way better than all the others, even if they don’t win a title)

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Code Oranje: Holland In Crisis

Scott Musgrave

To call the state of football in the Netherlands a ‘crisis’ is perhaps taking things a little too far, but there is indeed a weakening of a once great and competitive league competition. Long gone are the days of Cruijff, total football, and the unwavering Ajax team who won consecutive European titles. Long gone are the days when a Round of 16 or equivalent appearance was demanded by fans and board members as a bare minimum.

To be blunt, the quality of the Eredivisie has dropped. No longer are Dutch superstars staying in their home country for the betterment of the league, nor are the quality players around the world wanting to come to the Eredivisie because it is a top competition.

No, now some would prefer to sit on the benches of higher co-efficient ranked league teams. Rafael Van De Vaart, Nigel De Jong, Joris Mathijsen and Romeo Castelen all ply their trade with Hamburger SV in the German Bundesliga, but why?

Arguably the quality is that much better in Germany than it is in The Netherlands. That would be a fair assumption based on the luminaries we associate with the Bundesliga and Bayern Munich in particular. The likes of World Cup winner Luca Toni are drawn to the ever growing Bundesliga, even the big stars of the German national team seem to stay in Germany. Miroslav Klose, Per Mertesacker, Kevin Kuranyi and Philip Lahm continue to be content with life in the Bundesliga. Why is it then that the Eredivisie is not like this? Is there something in the Dutch condition that drives them to leave their native soil for a change in life?

Past movement of players to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan have all been accepted, as players are moving onto clubs with bigger reputations than that of their home teams. But to leave for clubs such as Wigan Athletic (Denny Landzaat from AZ Alkmaar), Hamburg SV (Van De Vaart, De Jong (Ajax), Castelen (Feyenoord) Mathijsen (AZ)) and Blackburn Rovers (Maceo Rigters from NAC Breda) baffles the mind, particularly when Ajax Amsterdam has one of the biggest reputations in world football.

These players either need to wait for a big club to pick them up, i.e one that regularly challenges for league honours particularly in Spain, England or Italy, or remain in the Eredivisie honing their skills. That is not to say that the Bundesliga doesn’t deserve to have such exceptional players. However when Germany can field a national team almost entirely from their own top flight, it brings into question whether or not the Dutch players plying their trade there could not likewise have made a bigger impact at home particularly when it relates to European and International competition.

Here is the main point, because of the talent drain on the Eredivisie and the perception of it as a ‘development league’ , the quality simply isn’t there to cope with the big spending teams of Europe.

Young talent is seemingly shipped off to any team with money. Nacer Barazite of Arsenal and Patrick Van Aanholt of Chelsea are two stinging examples of the lack of faith in the Eredivisie to even develop talent. Both these players were under 18 before they moved out to the big London clubs in England. Van Aanholt’s move was particularly baffling as he was attending one of the most prestigious academies in Western Europe, that of PSV Eindhoven.

This is the start of something terrible for the Eredivisie, if various clubs can’t hold onto their academy talent something is wrong.

It has been gradually getting worse. Things were better particularly during the 1980’s where most quality players played in the Eredivisie. The European Cup win of PSV Eindhoven in 1987 proves this along with the Euro ’88 win by the Dutch National Team which was comprised mostly of home based players or those at the ‘big’ clubs of Europe.

It has been gradually getting worse from this point however. Since this time only Ajax have spurted up with a European Cup triumph in 1995 and the best effort in the years after was the 2005 semi-final run by a Guus Hiddink coached PSV Eindhoven who were the major surprise packet of the tournament.

However most notably, after these successes, players went on the greener pastures; Ajax (1995): Clarence Seedorf, Edwin Van Der Sar, Edgar Davids , Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Frank & Ronald De Boer, Jari Litmanen and Michael Reziger.

All these players played in the European Cup final of 1995 and all of them moved on to different clubs soon after. Most however would move to the big clubs of Europe, but even such a choice did affect the overall quality of the Eredivisie. With these players leaving the quality of the league dropped as it was no longer possible for upcoming talent to test itself against these amazing players.

Similarly with PSV’s triumph in the 2005 Champion’s League, as soon as the success had sunk in, the player drain came.

PSV (2005) – Wilfred Bouma, Young-Pyo Lee, Ji-Sung Park, Mark Van Bommel, DaMarcus Beasley, Robert and Johan Vogel.

Case in point however, not all of these players went to the big clubs of Europe. Wilfred Bouma left for Aston Villa and Young-Pyo Lee left for Tottenham Hotspur. Other notable departees Robert and Johan Vogel left for bench spots at Real Betis and AC Milan respectively whilst DaMarcus Beasley would leave for Rangers via a loan spell at Manchester City.

The only exceptions were captain Mark Van Bommel who left for childhood favourites Barcelona and Ji-Sung Park who left for Manchester United.

This is the main gripe. Quality players are not moving to better teams. They could stay with PSV for example and continually compete at the highest level in Europe and furthermore encourage their domestic opponents to raise their game by playing against these quality players on a regular basis.

Due the drain of players to lesser clubs, getting younger and younger, the quality of the Eredivisie suffers and thus its competitiveness in Europe suffers.

PSV is the only club in recent history to have competed at a high enough level to progress to the latter stages of the European Champion’s League with Ajax reaching pitiful lows of not even qualifying for the UEFA Cup Group Stage. AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord Rotterdam haven’t done themselves any favours either. Alkmaar reached a Quarter-Final in the UEFA Cup in the 06/07 season whilst Feyenoord were barred due to crowd troubles.

This year has been absolutely disgusting for fans of Dutch football with only ONE TEAM remaining in European competition after the winter break; PSV, after managing 3^rd spot in their Champions League group, advanced to the last 32 of the UEFA Cup .

There is a problem with the Eredivisie and someone needs to fix it.

Players need to be encouraged to stay in their home country, if the Dutch remain in Holland, then the quality will increase and players in other foreign leagues such as the Bundesliga and the Portuguese Bwin Liga may be attracted to come and play in Holland.

Maybe it is just greed in the end that drives players over borders to different footballing nations, after all there isn’t as much money in Dutch football as there once was. But who’s fault is that? The blame lies squarely with the players and their ambitions. It would be foolish to deny a player his ambitions, but they have to be good enough to realise that ambition. Sure, if for example, Ron Vlaar (Feyenoord) wants to go to England at some stage, let him, he’s entitled to that. But he must first realise his potential in order to make the step up to Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea.

We don’t want players moving from the big clubs of Holland to the Bolton’s and the Catania’s of this world. We want them moving to the Liverpool’s and the AC Milan’s.

If Holland ever wants to be competitive in Europe again we need to keep our talent in Holland for as long as possible, otherwise the league and it’s proud traditions will suffer dearly. There is too much of proud history in Dutch football to let that happen.

We need to keep the Aissati’s and the Huntelaar’s for as long as possible before they move to big clubs even if they are to move at all.

Keep the Netherlands Oranje and proud.