Questions for Rafael van der Vaart

Question for any professional player I would have right now (odd that you never hear Dutch or English media asking these questions, not a surprise to me though):

What do you think of the recent confessions by some serie B players of involvement in match-fixing and their claim that many more games (including serie A games) involve match-fixing? In particular whether they think it’s limited to Italy and what would be their argumentation why something like that would be limited to Italy (concerning the 1st leagues in for example Germany, Spain and England, where he played).

In case you didn’t know, here’s a piece from Aljazeera:

“Italy’s new soccer match-fixing scandal gained momentum on Tuesday when legal testimony showed former Atalanta captain and Italy midfielder Cristiano Doni admitting his role in illicit betting.

Reports also said another accused player, ex-Piacenza defender Carlo Gervasoni, had told prosecutors that many more Italian matches than previously suspected involved illegal betting and match-fixing including games in Serie A.”

I’ll add this myself, something to think about, when players are tested in serie B (and lower leagues) whether they can keep their mouths shut (and do as they’re told by those who want to fix the matches and run/own the games/clubs basicly), which ones do you think will get the juicy contracts at the big major league clubs like ManU, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus, all the way down the ladder to the crappy 1st league clubs? The ones who keep their mouths shut or the ones who fess up?

I guess we’ll see what happens to these guys…

or is it just a matter of one criminal group taking out the competition, the way it usually works when (politicly motivated and white-collar criminally controlled) prosecutors, judges and lawyers start doing their thing. Nvm, done with my rant about corruption again I guess.

Posted from  Netherlands

My one question for vaart?
Raf how you felt after dropped from final eleven for world cup final in SA for kuyt?do you think he deserves a spot ahead of you.??
That was a huge chance that fab4 could have played together,BVM spoiled it how about that?

Wow, what a fantastic opportunity to interview an Oranje talisman. Raf is one of my favourite players since his days at Hamburg.

Question 1:
Waht do you feel about refeereing? Would you be in favour of introducing video technology to reduce the sometimes arbitrary refereeing decisions?

Question 2:
How can you as a player get on with playing and keep motivating yourself if your team concedes a matchdeciding (and wrongful) penalty or red card? As a fan I usually get quite angry when refereeing is inconsistent. How do you as player cope with such kind of emotions?

Quaestion 3:
Regarding the disparity in income between fotballers and so-called “normal” people: What do you feel about earning as much as you do while others can hardly get jobs (Tottenham riots)? What do you think of the advent of the so-called “sugar-daddies” at Chelsea, Man-City and now PSG? Do you think that the money that gets pumped into the “footalling-economy” offsets the distortion between clubs with a sustainable model like Arsenal or Tottenham and Man City?

Question 4:
Did you like your brief time at Madrid with all your colleagues from the national team: Sneijder, Huntelaar, van Nistelrooy, Drenthe? Could the national team have profited if all of you could have stayed longer at Madrid and forge a footballing relationship on the pitch like the Spanish national team did in Barcelona. I mean you’re all really succesfull at your clubs now, but could you maybe have been even better?

Posted from  Switzerland

@Sol

On the subject of match fixing, and betting on matches in general:

It completely amazes me how many betting sites there are for football matches. Considering only Europe for the moment, it almost seems to be a major(and presumably therefore taxed and regulated)European Industry. Since fixing will always be a part of wagering, the fans who participate will in the end “reap what they sow” – just when they think they are onto a sure thing…the match will strangely go the other way.

OJF

yep, like PSV winning against Feyenoord with the exact score of 10-0, who would have placed a bet with that exact scoreline (I’m sure someone did )? Or (skipping the Ajax CL subject) Barcelona losing to Cluj something something. Inter losing this year to some unknown club (right at the start of the CL). You gotta wonder about some of these results, and when you do that, you have to start wondering about ALL the players involved in those matches as well. That includes the indirect losers (Ajax for example), especially when their protests seem not genuine, moderated or benign and/or their accusations of match-fixing come across as a politician’s outrage about some random injustice to the people, basicly just for show but never comitting to any real investigation or accusation, just enough words to keep everyone who’s upset about it (and suspects foulplay) content enough and thinking at least someone feels the same way they do but is just as powerless to do anything about it so they should just accept it as it is, quickly, quickly, change the subject (JC vs board of directors). Distract, evade.

And lol at the reaction of the Lyon coach at even the mere suggestion of match-fixing, ooh, ooh, ooh, big tabooh!

Posted from  Netherlands

@ Tiju.

Really?!? How did you feel getting dropped for Kuyt?

The ridiculousness of that question is… i don’t know.
I’m shaking my head.

Only Tiju…

I have one question for Raf

+ What player in the Oranje squad does he feels the most comfortable playing along with? and Why.

LOL Eric Cantona wants to become President of France.. now thats an interesting thought.. lol karate kicks at the euro summit XD look out Cameron !!!

Posted from  Netherlands

Van den Berg – Jesus made Tij ask that question

Ha!

Van Persie is left out of the World Team of the Year. Robin’s wife asks via Twitter: Huh? How many goals does Robin need to score? 84 per year??

Posted from  Singapore

Messi is at the same level as Cruyff, Platini, Van Basten.

Something tells me will see him win it a couple of times more.

But, something tells me Robin will win it this year.

And something tells me Arjen Robben will win it once as well.

And Kuyt.

Posted from  Singapore

Henry

Posted from  Singapore

Team of the year. Rooney ahead of van Persie. I think even the most jaded Man U fan would say Robin has had a better year.

Sensational return from Henry.

and shock comeback from Scholes. although he gave away the 2nd goal for City.

perhaps then Fowler will come back for Liverpool, Makelele will come back for Chelsea…

Jan, I’m sorry but I do not think Messi is the same as JC. There are only a few players I will put on the same level as JC: Pele, Maradona (yes although he has many bad habits on and off the field), Beckenbauer. I cannot comment about Di Stefano as I do not know much. I will put Messi on the same as Platini, Van Basten and Zidane. Again, last year’s award should have been Sneijder’s so I will rank the award right up there with FIFA ranking. I think France Football’s award is more weight than FIFA (where the coach and team’s captain vote). I agreed with you that with Barca Messi will win a few more.

Posted from  United States

in my opinion messi is not yet at the same level as johan cruyff (and diego maradona),but he’s at beckenbauer’s level,but already better than platini,marco and zidane. for me he’s the third best player i have seen in my life: 1. cruyff 2. maradona 3. messi.(actually this time and in the previous years as well i supported someone else,not lio )
johan cruyff told yesterday to catalonian journalists that at the end of his career messi would have 6-7 ballon d’or.
van persie was definitely better this year than rooney,he should have been in the best eleven…

Posted from  Hungary

Strange rumours in Singapore about Raf vdV being seen at the WALOBS MANOR private residence of the Dutch Ambassador in Singapore. Should ask Jan about this ???

Posted from  Singapore

Ference – you can have that coversation and not include Pele?? I never saw Cruyff or Pele play but from what I have been told they are at least equal.

How good would Maradonna been had it not been for cheeseburgers and cocaine???

Oh and don’t forget the whores! Cheesburgers, whores and cocaine. Maradonna is a bit of a hero to me!!!!!

Maradona spent 80% of his money on cheeseburgers, whores and cocaine. The rest of his money, he wasted…

Posted from  Singapore

OranjeRules: the reason is simple,i didn’t see pele in his active day. however,it seems pele is a bit overrated… i don’t like maradona,but he was a brilliant player and almost singlehandedly won the 86 worldcup for argentina.

Posted from  Hungary

1) Van P definitely should be on the first team ahead of Rooney. More goals, fewer stupid cards and fouls.

2) I’d say that Messi is on the JC, Pele and Maradona level. Part of the reason is that football is just insanely tougher now. Much better training, skills development, etc. Maradona and Pele would have had a world of difficulty playing against dozens of graduates of Ajax Toekomst and Barca’s youth system. Look again at some old plays – the players just aren’t as fast, fit and skillful. For crying out loud some of the old players smoked! Unfortunately, almost sure that all the top players use EPO now to give them the ability to run hard for 90 minutes.

3)Which leads to the VdV questions:

a) How do you keep fit enough to play?
b) what do you see as your greatest strength on the field? for Tottenham and for Oranje.
c) Love the who’s favorite team mate question too.

4) Saw VdV in 2006 – he’s clearly not as fast as Robben, Van P, etc. But his natural ability to do anything with the ball that he wants while running around realy is stunning.

Posted from  United States

1. Which is your best game for Oranje?
2. What is your best 11 in the history of Oranje?

Hey Jan – don’t know if you will see this but I can’t see any of the comments on the Bosvelt article…just end up at a blue screen which suggests I should try the RS 2.0 feed

OJF

Posted from  Canada