Dutch Football - Dutch FA start 'Holland B'

"The intellectualisation
of football has
always foundered
on a simple problem-
-the players. Doing
all your most
rewarding thinking
with your feet seems
to dull the philo-
sophical impulse.
Unless, of course,
you are Dutch.
According to legend,
Europeans played
a moronic, muscular
version of the world's
game, until Holland
proclaimed its vision
of total football in the
1974 World Cup,
and enlightenment
dawned."

From:
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football

Dutch FA start 'Holland B'

Friday 24 October 2008

The Dutch FA (KNVB) reintroduce after almost 20 years a team that shall play under the name Holland B, the KNVB announced today.

For Holland star Johan Neeskens has been appointed as coach.

He will be assisted by Dennis Bergkamp, who will combine the job with role as an intern at Ajax.

Arthur Numan (team management) and Patrick Lodewijks (keeper trainer) are part of the technical staff.

The B-team will consist of players who are too old for the U-12 team but are not yet a regular member of the national team

The decision to revive the team came after Holland's U-21 did not qualify for the European Championships in 2009.

A big group of talented players thus threatened to be without international football for a long period of time and lose contact with the A-team.

The contracts of the staff start on 1 January 2009 and expire at the end of the ongoing season.

The manager of Oranje, Bert van Marwijk reacted positive on the new plan.

"I like to work with a limited group of players, because of the short span of time at your disposal. But it would be a shame as because of that some players are out of the picture for a while. By starting this team we can keep track of a group of talented young players. This prevents that a gap exists between the U-21 and the national team."

Feyenoord coach Gertjan Verbeek isn't to crazy about the plan.

"I am not for that plan. I actually think it's nonsense," he said.

Verbeek was also not amused by the fact that the keeper trainer of Feyenoord, Lodewijks, has been hired.

"No one at Feyenoord knew about this. At least I wasn't informed. I think that's strange, he is after all on our pay roll."

Verbeek's main concern is losing even more players during international weeks.

"I have to do without my internationals quite often already. Makaay and De Guzman came back injured from the Olympics and we are still suffering from that. From now on we will only let players go if the FIFA rules say we must. I prefer to keep them at the club. We have better training schedules to offer them anyway."