The 1974 Swimming Pool Incident

July 8th, 2011 | by: Jan |

oranje74

Oranje had qualified for the WC1974 finals. Cruyff and Neeskens beat Brazil and West Germany – not playing a very impressive tournament so far – was to be the next nudge on the …eh…football shoe.

German tabloid Bild wanted to milk the situation.

They had a plan. They knew where the Dutch players resided. They had some loose Deutsch Marks to chuck around. And they had the phone numbers of some juicy escort girls.

“I love it when a good plan comes together…”

The money was used to bribe the security guards. The escort girls were….eh…escorted into the pool area where the Dutch players were chilling out. The girls undressed and jumped giggling into the pool, amongst the players. And the Bild photographers were happily snapping away in a bush somewhere.

The photo’s were prominently on the front page: “Oranje has big orgy with naked women in Hotel pool”. Or something like that.

They obviously didn’t write that it was a big set-up, nor that the players almost immediately left the pool and made for their rooms to escape this scandal. With Neeskens, Krol and Rep in their midst, it was quite a feat. Gullit and Kluivert were never put to this test. Koeman wished he was… But, I’m am drifting…

The images were quickly used in the Dutch media as well and a huge debacle was born. Team supervisor Rinus Michels thought it was amusing. Players (Van Hanegem, Krol, Jongbloed) laughed it all away, but the damage was done.

jc argent

Danny Cruyff was on the phone immediately to her hubbie JC to check what happened. Johan Cruyff was named as one of the players canoodling with a couple of Bambi’s (while in fact he wasn’t even in the pool that day!) and Danny was in tears. The players were gone for weeks already and tension rose. JC was on the phone for quite some time and made a promise to his wife, never to leave her that long. At night, Johan couldn’t sleep and paced the room, smoking one cigarette after the other.

The connection between Jopie and Danny is well-known and Johan was shocked by the way the German tabloid tried to influence the game.

Out for revenge, when the ref blew the whistle to start the game, Johan had only one goal: humiliate the Germans. He picked up the ball on his own half and dribbled past three or four opponents until Vogts stopped him illegally in the German box. Penalty! No German had had a touch yet and even before Sepp Mayer touched it, the score line was 0-1, thanks to Johan Neeskens’ penalty.

In the minutes after the goal, Oranje switched to gallery play. They didn’t set out to win the cup, they set out to crush and ridicule the Germans. Not a shabby team by the way, with Muller, Beckenbauer, Grabowski, Hoeness and Overath. And one Sepp Mayer. He wasn’t going to be humiliated. The big goalie stopped everything coming his way, and we all know how this game ended.

jc vogts

JC had a strong first minute, but was pedestrian in the remaining 89. Van Hanegem, Rep, Rensenbrink…they were close to scoring, but it was Paul Breitner and Gerd Muller finding the net.

We lost. Bild won.

(Note: I’ve been searching for the Bild photo’s but they are nowhere to be found… Although the actual photographer should have a couple in their private collection….)

For years, people thought JC didn’t go to the WC1978 because of his promise to Danny…we’ll find out later what the real reason was… Check out Memories on WC1978 (to be published soon )

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By Srinjoy | July 9th, 2011 at 3:58 am

Renato Ibarra signs for Vitesse
Samir Nasri signs for Manchester City

Posted from Bosnia And Herzegovina

By Srinjoy | July 9th, 2011 at 4:28 am

Charles N’Zogbia and Alberto Aqualani on the verge of Sunderland moves !

Posted from Bosnia And Herzegovina

By Finnster01 | July 9th, 2011 at 6:51 am

Off topic a bit (but not too far): I had my very own pool incident once…My first wife (divorced since) and I got married in the Seychelles. Beautiful beaches, lovely weather, quaint, not too many tourists etc. We stayed in a small hotel on the outskirts of everything.

One day (in fact, the day before our marriage) I took a little skip into the pool at the hotel and just floated around in peace, only to be rudely awakened by mayhem. All of a sudden there was about 20+ models going crazy in the pool…Tops off, drinks in hand, just going nuts. I was the only male in there. Apparently there was a model competition taking place and this was their day off…Well, my bride to be decided to come and have a look and of course I got in the dog house big time…
I hadn’t even done anything but boy did I get the Alex Ferguson hair dryer treatment.

Moral of the story: I should have stayed in the pool!! (and had more fun and saved a lot of money…)

By ferenc | July 9th, 2011 at 8:28 am

Finn: i really like your swimming pool story

Posted from Hungary

By ferenc | July 9th, 2011 at 9:02 am

Srinjoy: any source? i’m bored with all these rumours… i read today (bbc) that wenger wanted to keep both cesc and nasri. nasri went to the asia tour with arsenal,cesc stays in london (he has a small injury). i don’t think nasri signs the city contract on the plane…

Posted from Hungary

By Jan | July 9th, 2011 at 9:34 am

Haha Finn!! That is a serious pool incident too mate

By Simon | July 9th, 2011 at 9:39 am

Srinjoy ~ i get you’re a Sunderland fan but why post their news on this blog ?

By fares | July 9th, 2011 at 10:28 am

Srinjoy get out of this blog please. we don’t need these posts.

By Carlos | July 9th, 2011 at 10:43 am

Srinjoy by all means give us news on Holland/Oranje or Dutch teams with impacts on Oranje players – Not Sunderland, Denmark, ManCity etc. Join their blogs if you want a reaction. You just create bored antagonists here. I for one don’t read past the first line of your posts.

Posted from Singapore

By Orangeismycolor (Miguel) | July 9th, 2011 at 6:03 pm

Gianni Zuiverloon is linked to Mallorca…do you guys think he can become Oranje material?. I remember he was very good.

By Robbert | July 9th, 2011 at 7:44 pm

@ oranjeismycolor: Zuiveloon has indeed great potential. I remember him in his Feyenoord times and when he played for West Bromwich Albion. During his WBA time he was even linked to Arsenal and Man U, because of his great performances against top teams. He could be the stand in for Van Der Wiel

Posted from Netherlands

By Steve | July 9th, 2011 at 10:58 pm

Hahaa Finnster that is hilarious

Posted from Canada

By Tiju | July 10th, 2011 at 12:02 am

I expected that i mean Nasri move

By Tiju | July 10th, 2011 at 12:05 am

Sir alex is keen on Wesley znijder..thats not a rumor..eventhough his other candidate are slipping awya from his hand i mean Nasri and Modric..
Wesley with SAF can be a great combo,or there is huge chance their ego’s can clash.

By Carlos | July 10th, 2011 at 1:47 am

Finn as a finance man you know which are the BRIC countries. Have you heard about the PIGS ? The European Problems ? Portugal Ireland Greece and Spain!
Tiju as u know I am not too big on ManU, but I do believe Wesley is as close to Scholes as you can get.

Posted from Singapore

By hien | July 10th, 2011 at 2:30 am

The 74 team in the final had a lot of chances. You may disagree with me and my friend as we feel that the 74 team is the only truly Total Football team. If I miss the article where you rank which is the top 5 teams please show me the link. There are many great teams: 74, 78, 88, 92, 98 and 2010. There are many stories on 74, 88 and 2010 team. If you have more stories on the 78, 92 or 98 team it’d be great.

Posted from Canada

By Finnster01 | July 10th, 2011 at 2:53 am

@Carlos: That is very funny and also very apt.

By Alex | July 10th, 2011 at 3:30 am

haha PIGS, well you could replace Ireland with Italy and that’s the mediterranean for you.. lol

Posted from Netherlands

By Daniel | July 10th, 2011 at 5:02 am

Hey Jan and Co.

Have a question I am hoping someone can help me with regarding purchasing tickets to see Ajax vs VVV on the 26th August 2011. I am from Australia and I am travelling to Europe shortly and would love to see an Ajax game, if anyone could point me in the right direction and what the best way to go about this is that would be very much appreciated, thank- you

By Jad | July 10th, 2011 at 4:32 pm

today is our WC final anniversery hope next year we will be celebrating as EC champions.

By Jad | July 10th, 2011 at 4:47 pm

Am really concerned on royston drenthe , no news on his future ,he is out from real trip to usa..probably he will be loaned to some club in la liga

Juventus showed interest in van persie , and man united showed interest in huntelaar but both players are not interested and want to stay in their current clubs.

Lyonnes are interested in douglas

By Jalepinho | July 10th, 2011 at 4:57 pm

haha great story Finn.

@Daniel, to see Ajax games, you’ll have to be a member which i believe only locals are elible to apply. For us foreigners, we’ll have to buy the Ajax tour packages (includes a tour to a museum, tiks to a match, and dinner). You can purchase from the ajax website i believe.

another way to do this which i’ve heard from some friends whose tried before, is to ask locals if they can use their card to buy the tiks for you. the dutch are typically very friendly to tourist and are more than happy to do foreigners a favor (unless you dig holes in their beaches which i hear really pisses them off).

hope this helps

By Daniel | July 10th, 2011 at 5:28 pm

Thanks Jalepinho, I had heard something about all that but was not sure, the AJax package sounds great tho, I guess im lucky as i have family in Breda who can hopefully purchase them for me.

Thanks again!

Haha that sounds funny

By Abhirup | July 11th, 2011 at 3:50 am

Jad:

Arsenal are keeping tabs on him…

Posted from India

By Jad | July 11th, 2011 at 6:17 am

The Biggest dutch players transfers :

1-2000:Marc Overmars 40 million euros from Arsenal to Barcelona
2-2007:Arjen Robben 36 million euros from Chelsea to Real Madrid
3-2001:Ruud van Nistelrooy 30.4 million euros from PSV to Manchester United
4-2007:Wesley Sneijder 27.4 million euros from Ajax to Real Madrid (if he moved to Man.united he will take third place for 35 million euros)

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