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A message from the KNVB in Sydney

October 7th, 2009 | By: Jan | 13 Comments »

My two contacts at the KNVB, Monique and Anja, asked me to post this on the blog!

They’re wonderful supporters of our initiative and endeavor – like we do – to get more international communication going for us. I texted them the issues with the venue change and this is the email I promptly received from them. I’ve copied it in, without editing.

Dear “Oranje fans”,

We are very sorry to hear that your trip to North Sydney Oval (NSO) yesterday was unsuccessful.

Tuesday night – after the team arrived in Sydney – we immediately inspected the pitch of NSO, which was foreseen for Oranje’s practices. Unfortunately this field was badly affected by the wet weather conditions in Sydney over the past week. Therefore we were forced to change the venue for the training session on Wednesday at the very last moment, including the training session open for supporters.

We did our utmost to inform the people of whom we still had the e-mail address and/or telephone number. However, we realised that the information of the venue change wouldn’t reach all Oranje fans at that late stage.

In consultation with Football Federation of Australia, we have decided to open Friday’s (Oct 9) training session for the fans who missed out on Wednesday. This training, which starts at 19h00, will take place at the Sydney Football Stadium (address: Driver Avenue, Paddington). Please report at “Venue Services” (next to gate A) of the stadium. Please check Google Maps for the exact location.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Best “Orange wishes”,

Monique Kessels

Anja van Ginhoven

PR/Media Department The Netherlands FA

End of message.

As I wrote earlier, Sneijder was interviewed and said he was highly impressed and overwhelmed with the heart-warming response in Australia. The players did an impromptu fan signature session on Wednesday but on Friday the team has different obligations so don’t expect the same on Friday. Sorry… But I’m sure the players will do what they can to please everyone.

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Comments

By finnster01 | October 7th, 2009 at 9:31 pm

@Jan: Please give my regards to the wonderful work KNVB is doing to help foreign non-dutch speaking fans like myself. Especially with their website.

It is very impressive. I understand that it was supposed to have an English version for EC08. That didn’t happen.

I’m signing up for Boer/Zulu/Swahili lessons because I know there is no chance in hell that anything other than the shopping cart will be in English for WC2010 in South Africa.

Thank you for considering your foreign fan base, including not bothering to tell anyone about the change of training venue downunder. Maybe some of these fine ladies at KNVB will understand that the reason they don’t have all the emails to oranje fans in Australia (and elsewhere) is because nobody has registered with KNVB because we can’t understand a word about what they are saying?

Blind leading the blind. Thank you Henk Kesler for your fantastic Sepp Blatter impersonation. Great to see that soccer administration and leadership of Oranje is in very capable hands.

By finnster01 | October 7th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

Actually all it would take is for someone from KNVB post messages on here and my rant would not be necessary.

But I guess there are no Euro/guilders to be had by doing that.

I have not seen a country ignore their (very large) foreign fan base to this extreme.

Well, I don’t give a crap. I’ve got this site, Jan, Goose, Tiju, Carlos, Mo, Mario, Ferenc, Alex, Jeroen, Sol, Sonneveld and the rest of you.

That’s all I need to be honest.

By Jan | October 7th, 2009 at 11:54 pm

Finn, I know… Thanks for the rant .

But at the same time, the press ladies of the KNVB have always been very supportive of our efforts here and the change of venue was emailed to me and I immediately posted the change – in a comment though – on the blog.

As they said, it was a last minute change, done to protect the players (and the pitch…).

I don’t mind that, that’s basically beyond the KNVB’s power.

I do agree with the KNVB site not-being-in-English rant, but the powers that be at the KNVB don’t think it should be top prio.

I don’t agree but I think certain people within the KNVB don’t agree either.

By Tiju | October 8th, 2009 at 12:08 am

My Main rants and concern on dutch team selection…
Jan please tell BVM that he will not win the title( with players like Englaar,Vanbommel,Gio,Ooiger,babel? and tell him to find a mentally fit captain…thats it for now…….(this is my intusion)

Posted from India

By Tiju | October 8th, 2009 at 12:10 am

@finn..”Blind leading the blind”. its common in this world..we groom our youngsters like that.Nobody wants to follow the footsteps of Messiah…….isnt it?

Posted from India

By Mario | October 8th, 2009 at 12:17 am

Finnster…I second all your comments!. I´m sorry for the KNVB. They remind me a bit of Mexican´s football federation. A bunch of …..!!!!

By Agragami | October 8th, 2009 at 6:15 am

@ Jan: we all share Finn’s frustrations… not being able to make a bit out of our most favourite team’s official website is agonising…but now that you have developed some good contacts within the press PR personnel of KNVB, you can put forth the case and the cause to them…You should put all your persuasion skills to optimal use on Anja and Monique first… If they see reason they can act as our intermediaries in making the KNVB honchos realise that there is a whole world out there beyond the boundaries of Holland that loves and adores Dutch football…Dutch language, no doubt should come first, but a section in English should be included…

Posted from India

By Dan | October 8th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

I agree with Finnster. I am an Australian from Nederland, I came to this country when I was small so while I still have dual citizenship I have lost most of my language skills. I only learn some language when I visit familiy in Nederland!
I have followed Oranje madly for the last 20 years, because they are so great, and until 2005 Australian footballw as nothing special.
I would love some English on the KNVB website and the ability to register my email. I haven’t registered because I cannot read the website. It is very hard to be a fan of Oranje when there is no English information on the web.
I was one of the people disappointed at North Sydney. I will go to the training tonight – thank you for opening the session to the public.

Posted from Australia

By goose | October 9th, 2009 at 3:46 am

i actually emailed the KNVW 3 times about the website and i got the same answer every time ” the english version will be up and running soon” ; my first email to them was in jan. 2008 ! very shamefull!! if any of you want to have another go (Gerben.vanBokhorst@knvb.nl) i also asked them if they would place a link to this blog on the KNVB site but ofcourse they wouldnt

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | October 9th, 2009 at 3:52 am

Agragami, again… I’ve done all that. The ladies have courteously helped me find the people in charge. I had some communication with them, but when I asked to many sharp questions and made them stick to their promises they got annoyed with me and I never heard since. I won’t risk my relationship with Anja and Monique by having another go at these guys (IT-blokes) via email.

Which is why I’ll meet with them tomorrow face to face.

I will collect all your stories and send it through today, but I need to get to the next level, I guess.

In the meantime, let this blog be your official source

By Dan | October 9th, 2009 at 5:43 am

Photos from tonight’s training at Sydney Football Stadium
http://img198.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=vandervaart.jpg
Sorry that I am not very good with the camera.

Posted from Australia

By Jan | October 9th, 2009 at 8:32 am

Cool Dan, thanks

By Mark | October 20th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

Thanks for posting. I have taken this presentation skills workshop and I gained a lot of confidence and was able to prepare effective slides to aid presentation. Worth checking!

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