Tag: Eredivisie

by Jan

Jan's Predictions for Season 2013/14

Do you feel the tickling sensation already?

The competitions has started already….

Time for predictions.

I will offer up mine here.

Dutch Competition

If Ajax will keep Eriksen, they will be a strong contender for the title again, but I don’t think they will hang on to him.

And therefore, I believe Ajax’ hegemony will be broken. By PSV. I think PSV have bought the right players and I think with Cocu they will be able to snatch the title. We will see Wijnaldum and Depay shine and I hope Park will sign soon as he and Schaars will rule midfield. I am not a big PSV fan as you all know, but hey…Narsingh, Depay, Maher, Wijnaldum, Rekik, Willems… pfff…

Christian_Eriksen1_1

Ajax will lose Eriksen before Sept 2 is my believe. Once Suarez is gone from Liverpool (he will go to Arsenal) Eriksen will go to Merseyside. Ajax will have a good year in CL but no prolongation of the title.

Feyenoord will be number 3, but will win the National Cup. AZ will establish itself high in the ranking, as will Vitesse. FC Utrecht will not sustain their level of last season.

The Dutch internationals in the Eredivisie will all do well. Janmaat, Blind, Maher, Clasie…no problems.

English Competition

Man United will not extend their victories. Robin van Persie will have a good season, but not phenomenal as Man U will struggle to find it’s rhythm under Moyes. Man City will not have a great season either. I expect Arsenal to win the title and Chelsea will be the fiercest opponent. Spurs will do very well as well, as will Liverpool. Swansea, Norwich and Newcastle will be favorites due to the presence of the Dutch players there. I see Arsenal win the title, Chelsea second, Man City United third, Spurs fourth and Man City will be fifth. Fulham will have a decent season with Stekelenburg in fine form. Pieters impresses at Stoke as does Vlaar at Villa. Pieters plays center back for the Potters. Heitinga stays at Everton but doesn’t get a look in.

Leroy Fer will have a cracker season at Norwich, as will De Guzman and Vorm in Wales. Anita will still struggle as will Van Wolfswinkel. Krul will have a great season too. I think Van Ginkel will see some action in the beginning but he will warm the bench in the business end of the season as such a move from Holland to the EPL is a lot to handle.

fer uk

I think Fer will take Van Ginkel’s spot in the WC squad.

Stijnis created a fantasy premier league for us on the barclays premier league website

http://fantasy.premierleague.com/

Bleed Oranje classic league code: 355721-91979

Bleed Oranje head to head league: 355721-92311

with all the latest group off Dutchies moving in to the premier league v.Ginkel, Fer, v.Wolfswikel, Steks, Pieters

sure to be a great season and great way to keep tabs on there progress

German Competition

Bayern will win it again. Pep will have a tremendous season again, with Robben again in a main role.

Werder, Schalke, Leverkusen and Dortmund to challenge. Elia will resurrect his career and Huntelaar will simply do what he always does: score. Dost and De Jong will also impress. I can see Van der Vaart having a decent season at Hamburg but he will have a serious injury. Helping him to be fit for the World Cup.

Italian Competition

Ola John will move to AC Milan and have a cracker of a season for Milan, alongside Nigel de Jong. Milan misses the title, which will again go to Juventus. AS Roma will have a decent season but Strootman will not excel as he drowns a bit in the Italian fighting style of midfield football. Strootman doesn’t have the time he needs in Italy and it takes time for him to get adjusted.

Nigel-de-Jong-AC-Milan-2012

Spanish Competition

Barcelona disappoints this coming season and the new coach will leave after this season. It’s too loose, not disciplined enough. Ancelotti on the other hand, wins the title and the CL with Real Madrid playing result football. Ozil loses his spot as Ancelotti goes for 4-4-2 and Modric gets a key position with Gareth Bale as free man on midfield.

World Cup Preparation

Van Gaal will pick Vermeer, Krul and Vorm as his goalies. Stekelenburg doesn’t convince him.

Van Gaal picks Blind as left back (knowing he has Pieters and Martins Indi as understudies) and Janmaat and Van Rhijn as right backs. For the centerback positions he picks Pieters, Martins Indi, De Vrij and Vlaar.

For midfield he picks Nigel de Jong and De Guzman for the holding mid spot, and Leroy Fer and Strootman as box-to-box players. Maher and Sneijder are selected for the playmaker role.

Robben and John are the left wingers, RVP and Huntelaar the central strikers and Narsingh for the right wing (knowing John and Robben can play there too). Van Gaal picks Van der Vaart as the wild card.

No Clasie, no Lens, no Willems, no Douglas, no Kuyt

clasie ginke

by Jan

Billion $$ for Dutch Eredivisie!!

While the maligned Dutch hockey men are giving the Brits a severe beating at the Olympics ( 9-2, well done!) I am writing this post on what might well be a turning point in Dutch football.

The big news, only days before the Eredivisie starts, is not about a transfer or Louis van Gaal or about Feyenoord missing out on the CL. It’s about a multibillion dollar man from Australia putting his money where his mouth is. And sadly, this guy isn’t me. (yet)

Through my football contacts in Holland I was aware something was brewing, but since yesterday we know it’s about former Aussie Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network who pay 1 Billion euros for the right to broadcast the Eredivisie for the next 12 seasons.

Keith Rupert Murdoch (81) is seen as one of the most influential media tycoon on the planet. He is currently the number 106 on the Forbes list of most wealthy people on the planet and he’s the major sharegolder of News Corporation. The media tycoon was born in Melbourne but became a US citizen in 1985.

Murdoch made a name for himself in Australia first and become a global name when he bought the infamous News of the World and later on The Sun and The Times.

In 1985 he acquired the Twentieth Century Fox film studio and this deal forced him to become a US citizen. Fox is currently one of the biggest tv networks and BSkyB is also part of the Fox family.

His image got a dent last year/this year when it was made known that reporters of his News of the World hacked into computers to obtain private records and to manipulate the news in order to sell more advertising and editions.

Murdoch now acquired the Eredivisie Live channel and will expand this – most likely – into an American-type show with entertainment and all.

Murdoch will have the rights to live and high light footage but as he did in other countries, he will most likely make the time gap between both broadcast wider (time-slicing) in order to force more people to get a subscription to the live games. The highlights will also be seen on the free-to-air network, as decreed by the Dutch government.

Currently, the high lights are with the NOS ( Studio Sport) but the NOS CEO already spoke of a media revolution and admitted it will be tough for the NOS to hang on to the rights for high lights.

Jan de Jong, NOS CEO: “It’s like someone bought Rembrand’s De Nachtwacht and will take it out of the Rijksmuseum, where you can see it for free, and who will show it now in his private collection for a hefty fee. We do like to show the high lights of course, but we can not compete with Murdoch and we don’t want to.”

Dutch sports marketing guru Frank van den Wall Bake: “Murdoch will most likely use this sports channel to add more sports. In terms of pay tv, Holland is a toddler. The consumer will be happy to pay more for great broadcasts. The 7 pm high lights will most likely shift to 9 pm. If you pay a bit more, you can get the live games, plus a juice game at 6 pm and the high lights at 9 pm. I don’t think this will result in too much commotion.”


Most sports experts in Holland see this deal as the saviour for Dutch football. Media expert Anton Lippold comments on the unexpected deal: “The competitive position of the big clubs will become much stronger. Finally, tv income will make a huge jump and the clubs will be enabled to compete better. Murdoch has big plans for Dutch sports and it won’t stop with football. Fox wants to own most international football competitions and believes the Dutch competition is really interesting in quality for the viewer.”

As an example, today Ajax receives 3 Mio euro tv money every season, in the new situation, clubs like Ajax will get close to 8 or 9 million euro.