Breaking news! KNVB taken over by cult!!

blog WC2018
by Jan

My friends, I’m sorry I had to push the Van Persie top story aside so quickly. Hope you still enjoy reading that if you haven’t already. But this is too hot to ignore. The title of the post might assume an April’s Fool angle or an exaggeration? Well, it’s not April 1, and yes, it might be exaggerated but it is an astonishing development.

All you will read here has been uncovered by investigative journalists of De Telegraaf. One of the best and most influential (and largest) newspapers in the country (in particular in sports). Their main competitor (Algemeen Dagblad) is the official spokes daily for the KNVB, so this news will not really appear in that medium. Chris van Neijnatten was the sports chief editor of the AD and he is currently head press relations at the KNVB, so there you go.

Anyway… what is the story?

You know that Hans van Breukelen was appointed Technical Director of the KNVB and the boss of Danny Blind and all KNVB’s football related activities.

In the same time frame he came in, chaos happened. The Board of Directors resigned collectively (bar one), general manager Van Oostveen was side lined and his successor will not be appointed until April 2017. This leaves the KNVB in the hands of the part time (interim) manager, who is in charge of commercial / business matters.

There were dramas with team manager Hans Jorritsma and two assistants to Blind resigned. Advocaat, to chase more cash and glamour with Fener and Van Basten went after his dreamjob at FIFA, although the appointment of Van Breukelen may well have had an impact. Replacement assistant Ruud Gullit firmly declined to deal with Van Breukelen after he told Ruud some fibs.

oostveen goes

Bert van Oostveen, report author Jelle Goes, KNVB Chair Michael van Praag

You all know this.

What you don’t know (and what was uncovered this weekend) is that Hans (or De Breuk, as he is called) has been part of a Dutch sports consultancy company (BTSW – Buro for Applied Sciences) for 15 years. And the people who work there as “mental coaches” and “peak performance consultants” and “team building mentors” and “psychologists” have all seem to have found their way into the KNVB in some form or other. All on the payroll and/or consultancy roles at different levels. The Technical Manager Jelle Goes, Youth Academy manager, the coaching development manager, all sorts of jobs at the KNVB filled by people 1) no one heard of before in football and 2) all partners/working for this company. All colleagues of De Breuk, for years.

Jelle Goes is the author of the much maligned report “Winners of Tomorrow”.

Joost Leenders, mental coach of Memphis Depay, amongst others, is now the new coach of the Under 18s and is BTWS ambassador.

Frans de Kat is youth coordinator – also of BTWS) and has worked for Arsenal and claims to have firmed up an agreement with Arsenal for youth development activities.

What you also don’t know is that the website of BTSW (now taken down, apparently) boasts relationships with all sorts of artists, musicians, clubs which clearly are all made up. The likes of FC Groningen, Arsenal, rapper Ali B and other big names in entertainment and sports are used to boost the profile of this company, but all of these have now been taken down. Arsenal even published a press release saying they’re outraged their name was used. None of these people/organisations seem to want a public relationship with these pseudo psychologists (or psychos!).

stout

Rini Stoutjesdijk

It goes even further: the founder of BTSW (Mr Stoutjesdijk, I believe) is an intense and dominant leader. An NLP (Neural Linguistic Programming) expert who operates like a sort of svengali and gets into people’s heads without them wanting this. A number of people have now come forward and claim this guy is 1) manipulative, 2) overpowering, 3) dangerous even…

Stoutjesdijk himself is the newly appointed mental coach for the Dutch women’s team….

What also came out, is that many athletes who have been “managed” by the psychos have suffered severe trauma and issues as a result of these people. And they wanted to come out. So a certain female author wrote a book about this and she actually called the company a “cult” with Stoutjesdijk as their cult leader. The victims, however, asked for their names and all the names of the people to be withheld and replaced by pseudonyms, for fear of retribution.

As a result, the book became a bit of a blank shot. Powerless. It read like fiction. And it never really made a mark. Until De Telegraaf uncovered all the real fact. The book was published (yes, was!) by a highly reputable publishing house but was taken off the market when the author was personally threatened by unknowns, with vicious threats. So the book is no longer available.

People who dealt with these psychos literally used the term brainwashing and are convinced Hans van Breukelen is actually a victim of this himself, being used by that company to get into a position of power in the KNVB to get control over sports talents in the Netherlands.

Blange

New PIM: Peter Blange

The newly appointed Performance and Innovation Manager (former Gold medallist volleyball star Peter Blange) also is linked to this BTSW group.

For people reading this and not being able to believe all this, here are some things about Hans van Breukelen you might not know:

  • Yes, he was an above average goal keeper, whose mental strength as often named as one of his strengths
  • Yes, Hans van Breukelen is considered a good man, with a good heart
  • Hans van Breukelen suffered severe depressions in his playing days
  • After losing a key game (vs Feyenoord) as a result of a major blunder by De Breuk, he self-confessed to have contemplated committing suicide
  • It’s also a fact – corroborated by ex team mates – that after a bad performance, Hans would decide himself to remove himself from group training for months, spending time alone (with a keeper trainer) as he couldn’t face working with other people out of shame
  • Hans did not do too much in football after his career but went into NLP and co-wrote two books about mental strength with….you guessed it….the CEO of that psycho company…
  • And Hans made his post-career money going around the country doing motivational speeches on leadership, most likely using it to bring clients to the consultancy firm

It might well be Hans is under the spell and firmly believes to be doing the right thing.

polletje

The infamous “polletje” incident vs Feyenoord

At a football talk show last weekend, Hans was the guest explaining to the analysts there (incl Pierre van Hooijdonk and Co Adriaanse) how he saw the future re: football development. Claiming that clubs have approached him with the question: “How can we determine if a player has the winning mentality?”. All analysts present fell off their chairs, claiming that 1) no club would ask this and 2) any youth coach not being able to see this for himself, would not be worthy of his job.

The talk show host cut De Breuk short all the time as he started rambling long stories about “assessment” and “mental guidance” and “structure” and “foundations”, asking De Breuk what was actually going to happen in terms of football development….

Where Wim Jansen (and people like Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Gullit and Van Basten) fully focus(ed) on football skills development, Van Breukelen’s only goal seems to be to push BTSW through the door!

Today, the KNVB board (the ones left) will discuss this new drama with Van Breukelen. The media in Holland are claiming there is only one option: sack Van Breukelen and kick out all the people linked to this weird company.

The company’s website was taken down yesterday.

Coming Friday, the author of De Telegraaf article will be on tv in Voetbal Inside with KNVB chairman Michael van Praag.

How interesting though, the man who is promoting the winning mindset within the KNVB might well be forced to throw the towel, as it seems that everything he touches fails and his commercial links with WTSB seems to hard to overcome, as he is clearly bringing his business buddies into the KNVB where ever he can….

I will keep you posted!

breuk accordeon

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33 comments

  3. Jan what if it works out. I see where you are coming from in terms of visions and blueprint of some of the dutch gurus which did had an impact on the team in the past,but this doesn’t mean that a change should be evitable,especially looking at the current status of NT.I remember there was some debate on this and you also wrote some blogs on this especially on the current deficiencies in the NT Squad. As I remember I myself commented on this saying modern football is not jus about one mens philosophy or a definite concept which can be used through out. Over the years it has changed with science,technology including human capabilities all incorporated together to enhance it.( modern day soccer)

    I hope I’m not on the wrong path but judging him as a player compared to now with whatever he has acquired from the program itself,it could be two different people. If he really can ehance or bring changes to the current and old system through whatever he has acquired then I don’t think why he should not be given the chance or at least be under assessment in case if he is a fake.

    Changes can be of both good or bad and probability will always be 50-50. So why not.

    1. if you ask me about current Danny blind team needs a proper analyst and psychologist ..yes i agree…it should be all based o n situations and But every things comes after developing in to proper footballer..So skills+intelligence are basics of football..

    2. This is the thing, Wilson… And I think you are saying the right things here, but… You can’t experiment with these things. And certainly not based on the vision of a guy who never ever did anything for youth development, coaching or running a football club: Hans van Breukelen. He’s like a motivational coach. That’s all.

      Would Tony Robbins be the right man to re-structure the way we play football?

      I don’t think so.

      So, no experiments, but analysis of what went right and what went wrong. By football people: Adriaanse, Jansen, Van Hanegem, Van Gaal, Advocaat, De Mos, Ten Cate, Rijkaard, Meulensteen, Brard.

  5. Jan, I checked the calendar just to make sure it wasn’t April Fool’s Day.

    Anyway, looks like Bazoer’s move to Wolfsburg is completed. We’ll see what he has now. I doubt Wolfsburg paid all that money to have him sit on the bench, so he should get an opportunity.

    1. confirmed, done deal. I think he agreed with Wolfsburg to earn time on the field, this is not too big club if he join big club in PL he afraid will follow Memphis’situation.

      1. I also agree he made the right decision to join Bundasliga rather than epl,however Wolfsburg really need to spend in the Jan transfer window as there is not much depth in the team. They have already started preparing life with Draxzler and Gustavo who look set to depart.Riccardo Rodriquez is also on radar on many teams.if Wolgburg fail to replace the outgoing players with players of same calibre I’m a afraid it will turn out to be a night mate move for Bazoer.

        Wolfsburg are ready in red zone losing 4 and drawing 1 in last five games. It will be big waste if they get relegated.

  7. At the moment, i see that our Orange has only van Dijk who can play for any club/league in the world even big clubs such as Barca, Real, Bayern. He ‘s very confident & adaptable.

      1. Haha, sure he’s top & world class player but he’s almost done, and one more think i don’t appreciate his adaptation & he’s usually get Injury, maybe he can playing well at Bayer, but if you remember in the past how hard his time at Real, so if we consider from all of the sides van Dijk is the best at this time, he does’t fear any opponent i think.

          1. he’s really look like my idol Gullit, but to say he will become top player it’s not easy i think unless some he has magic

    1. Yes, but at this moment he is behide so many names such as Pogba, Verati, Busquet, de Rossi, Kroos, etc. I think he has showed all he has, so he is a good & solid player in team but can not reach world class, while van Dijk potential still able to improve more & more.

  9. few last generations, we used to had so many top players who have played for big club and dominated at their club & in the world at their positions such as Robben, Vaart, Persie, Sneijder, van Bommel, Frank de Boer, Kluivert, David, Seedorf, Nisterooy.

    It’s shame for now lol

      2. Haha, hopefully however the point is recent year not easy for a dutch player to be reach world class as national team down & eredivisie down too, academy & player quality also down=> this is our current situation.

  10. Jan, well…

    …not sure what to say. To quote Bret, WTF?! This story + the downfall of South Korea’s President are good reminders of the power of svengalis. Hopefully the KNVB can sweep these clowns out and get somebody with credibility in to help hit the reset button.

  11. UPDATE ON KNVB SITUATION:

    Most of the people mentioned in my article, who were supposedly ambassadors of BTSW, have officially stated NOT to be linked to that company. Their names were used on the BTSW website without their permission.

    Some actually work for competing consultancy firms!

    The same applies to Ajax, PSV, Groningen and Arsenal. Apparently BTSW has had people of these clubs on free training days in the past, and as a result they used the names of these clubs to further their own commercial agenda! Dodgy!!

    The website is still on black.

    Van Breukelen has said: these practices are clumsy and I don’t condone those, but I am happy with their work here and unless the sources come forward who claim to be manipulated and ruined by the company, I don’t see a reason to stop working with them.

    As it stands now: BTSW has been dealing with dodgy practices which doesn’t look good. One has to wonder if an institution like the KNVB should work with a company like this.

    The brainwashing and svengali allegations are not substantiated YET and Van Breukelen and the KNVB will not take any action.

  13. UPDATE #2:

    The KNVB has suspended all activities with BTWS until further investigations give more clarity.

    Van Breukelen doesn’t see any problem and has said that as far as he is concerned, its all good and all will move ahead as planned.

  14. In the meantime:

    Peter Bosz of Ajax has a lot of talent to choose from, hence Bazoer’s exit to Wolfsburg and Gudelj being banned from the first team.

    In the Dutch cup, he fielded another youthful team with the likes of De Ligt and Nouri. They played second tier team Cambuur and got hammered.

    Cambuur played so well, Ajax was terrible. They’re out of the cup now and Bosz is livid!

    Feyenoord fielded their strongest team vs ADO Den Haag and crushed them. Feyenoord on good form.

    This weekend it’s Ajax – PSV. Any result will work for Feyenoord 🙂

    2. Jong Ajax at eerste beaten the same Cambuur earlier, 3-1. that Jong Ajax consisted of almost the same youngsters that got hammered yesterday.

      football is strange, beautiful, and annoying.

      1. This Jose Mourinho is teh shittiest coach in the planet for young players..
        Antony Martial was top player under LVG…Now Jose is making him like a garbage…He spend time on OLD d##$$K OF Ibra who is 34 year old..
        Fosu Mensaha saved Manu in l;ast season in crunch matches and he is no where to be seen.
        He took 6 months to understand mkhitayran is top class.
        He is making Rashford like a garbage….
        I want this A@ss#$ho^^&**le coach to be sacked..

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