We love field hockey

Yes, we love field hockey! It’s a lovely sport to follow on television and to watch from the side line. However, field hockey or how we call it in the Netherlands ‘hockey’ has also other unique selling points why we love hockey.

First of all, hockey dares to renew their playing rules, this means the sport gets faster and more attractive for the fans. Secondly, hockey tries to experiment with new technologies because it takes a lot of uncertainty away and the sport becomes more fair. Thirdly, the KNHB (Royal Dutch Hockey association) anticipated with sportsmanship & respect campaigns especially for parents on the side of the hockey field (in the image down below you can see an example but do note that it’s in Dutch).

Fourthly, the KNHB set up different kind of pilots with other sport associations because one of the goals of the Olympic Plan 2028* is to reach a higher sport participation in the Netherlands.  Therefore, there was a partnership with the NTTB (Dutch Table Tennis Association) last year and this year there is a pilot with the KNWU (Royal Dutch Cycling Union).

We don’t understand why other sports don’t take an example of hockey. For example soccer has been struggling for years now about goal line technology. This is illustrated in the fact that The Premier League (England) will probably introduce goal line technology next season whereas hockey introduced electronic support 5,5 years ago already.

Another example is golf. This is a sport in the Netherlands that has an image problem because a large amount of people think that the sport is only for the wealthy people like hockey was decades ago. However, there is a plan to introduce a National Golf Passport as a replacement of the Handicap Index (GVB in Dutch). With this change the association tries to change the public opinion on the sport instead of only focusing on increasing the amount of golf players. (Hockey has tried to do the same a couple of years ago and changes in the ‘hockey population’ have been noticeable ever since).

We think more sport associations need to take a look at hockey because this sport dares to be a leader in innovation. Therefore, follow the leader!

* The Netherlands try to have the Olympic Games of 2028 and made a plan how to make the Netherlands more sport friendly and to reach a higher sport level.

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Keep your head up

Many sports come with protective clothing to make sure the players are well protected against injuries and especially to protect their head. For example, cyclists use helmets and nowadays there is a big promotion to wear helmets on the mountains (‘Echte Profis tragen Helm’) with skiing and snowboarding.

However, the last time we are  witness of some unfortunate head injuries in football. We have seen Petr Cech, Maarten Stekelenburg, Przemyslw Tyton and yesterday Chris Smalling (after a collision with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar) suffering a head injury.

Recent research has indicated that football players heading many balls, suffer more from brain trauma than normal people do. In addition, a large amount of football keepers have been part of a collision lately and suffer brain damage of this. Therefore, we think football keepers should be obliged to wear head protection.

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European Championship in Poland & Ukraine

‘Wilhelmus van Nassouwe ben ik, van Duitsen bloed, den vaderland getrouwe blijf ik tot in den dood. Een Prinse van Oranje ben ik, vrij onverveerd, den Koning van Hispanje heb ik altijd geëerd.’

It’s 1 July 21.45 EET (Eastern Europe Time) and all the fans in the stadium are screaming and yelling after they have heard the national anthem of the Netherlands. Yes, the Netherlands has reached the final of the European Championship but before the start of the tournament there is a lot of negative publicity about the organization countries: Poland & Ukraine.

The UEFA and FIFA decide where the European and World Championship of football will take place but it looks like both organizations are very easy to be influenced. There is a lot incorrect with the organizing countries according to our Western view like: the new stadium in Warschau is not ready yet, racism under Polish football supporters (according to the president of Legia Warschau 15 till 20 percent of his supporters are neo-Nazis) and there are a low amount of facilities for football supporters in the host cities. For example, Charkov (the Netherlands is playing here all of their group matches) as you can see on the pictures, is not a very happy place to stay.

However, we think there is a much bigger problem with the corruption in Eastern-Europe:
“For hundreds of professional footballers in Eastern Europe, their dream of making a career in football has turned into nothing short of a nightmare. They don’t receive their salaries they are physically and mentally abused and have to be on their guard against falling into the hands of criminals.”

This is a conclusion from the FIFPO Black Book Eastern Europe. A shocking result is that by an average football game in East-Europe at least two players are approached to influence the outcome of a game. In addition, more than 10 percent of the football players have to deal with violence and intimidation. Therefore, we wonder how a European Championship can be played in Poland &  Ukraine when there is so much corruption. 

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Football players and how they celebrate their goals

Imagine you’re a professional football player that scores during  a match. Everybody in the stadium is excited and celebrates the goal.  However, you make a  sprint to  the corner flag to celebrate it with a rehearsed movement.

It  appears that more and more football players want to celebrate their goal with  themselves and in their own manner. Why don’t football players celebrate with their teammates? In our opinion  football is a team sport and a rehearsed movement to celebrate the goal is fine but it look likes it’s booming business this moment. For example, the heart sign which is shown by numerous players like John Guidetti when he scores for Feyenoord.

See the movie down below and please let us know what you think about this topic! Maybe you know some nice pictures or movies about football players and how they celebrate their goals? Let us know and we place this on our blog.

For all our Dutch visitors: In 2007 the book ‘Het grote juichen’ was published. In this book is written how players celebrate their goals in the history and nowadays; the evolution of celebrating a goal.

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Money, Money, Money!

The Netherlands is in a recession since this week. The Euro countries are losing their triple A status one by one. However, the last few days there were sport events where a lot of money was involved. In addition we think this is strange because how can whole Europe be almost in a recession when there is so much money involved in sports events in Europe?

For example, a large amount of money is to be found at Anzhi Makhachkala. The football club is managed by some very rich Russians and Guus Hiddink is the new head trainer and vice- chairman of the club. For example, they pay striker Samuel Eto’o 365.000 Euro per week, this makes him the best paid player in the world.


However, this week there were some sport events at which athletes could earn a large amount of money.  In the table below the sport events of the last days are summarized:

 * We are aware that the Champions- and Europe League are no sport events but competitions. However, the amount of money which is involved in these competitions is extremely high therefore we have chosen to add these two leagues.

By looking at this table we can conclude that there is a great difference in sport disciplines. It is very clear that athletes in some disciplines are very well paid but on the other side there are disciplines in which athletes earn small amounts of money. We understand that the popularity of the sport and sponsorships are responsible for the height of the money athletes earn but these athletes are training for the same goal (be the best of the world) with the same labor.

But why are there such big differences in sport popularity and sponsorships? We don’t know and are excited about your opinion. Please let us know in the comment field down below!

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Pre-Valentine's Day: Love = Football!

 (Girls, scroll down for a nice valentine tip! ^^)

After a 2-month break, the UEFA leagues are finally back! This week we can all enjoy many great games from the Champions league (8th final) and the Europa league (16th final).The first game will start on Tuesday 14th of February. For the big football fans among us it doesn’t matter this day it will be Valentine’s Day or does it? The video beneath is a fun commercial made by Puma in 2010 specially for valentine's day...

Two months ago we could never predict which team would actually be in what league; the results really surprised us. Who did ever thought that last-year’s Champions league finalist would play in the Europa league this year? We didn’t, as we neither did expect that Olympique Lyonnais would continue into next round in Champions league at the expense of Ajax.

Fortunately, in our opinion these surprises brings surprisingly good matches and we hope everyone will enjoy them. The program this week will be as following:

Champions League

Tuesday 14th of February

20:45

Lyon  (FRA) – Apoel (CYP)

Leverkusen (GER) – Barcelona (SPA)

Wednesday 15th of February

18:00

Zenit (RUS) – Benfica (POR)

20:45

Milan (ITA) – Arsenal (ENG)

Europa League

Tuesday 14th of February

18:00

Rubin (RUS) – Olympiacos (GRE)

18:30

Braga (POR) – Besiktas (TUR)

Wednesday 15th of February

18:00

Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS) – Athletic (SPA)

19:00

Salzburg (AUT) – Metalist (UKR)

Ajax (NED) – Man. United (ENG)

Plzen (CZE) – Schalke (GER)

AZ (NED) – Anderlecht (BEL)

Lazio (ITA) – Atlético (SPA)

Legia (POL) – Sporting (POR)

21:05

Steaua (ROU) – Twente (NED)

Wisla (POL) – Standard Liege (BEL)

Udinese (ITA) – PAOK (GRE)

Trabzonspor (TUR) – PSV (NED)

Hannover (GER) – Club Brugge (BEL)

Porto (POR) – Man City (ENG)

Stoke (ENG) – Valencia (SPA)

For all the girls who are reading this, maybe this video will inspire you to surprise your football-addicted man…

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