AZ Alkmaar Fall Back Down To Earth

When Standard Liege goalkeeper Sinan Bolat fired a bullet header past opposite man Sergio Romero in the dying seconds of his club’s final Champions League group game against AZ Alkmaar to snatch a 1-1 draw, it automatically became one of the season’s most memorable moments. The sight of this big burly keeper charging off jubilantly, shaking his glove-clad fists in part glee part disbelief, complete with semi-crazed glint in his eye was as priceless as it was significant. For Standard, Bolat’s late goal also salvaged a Europa League place. It was a quite brilliant moment.

Unless you’re AZ Alkmaar that is.

For the people of Alkmaar this was not a memorable and thrilling finale to a wonderful tale or a chance to chuckle at one of football’s rareties – the goalscoring goalkeeper – but a continuation of the long and painful nightmare that is their season. Keeper turned goalscorer is all well and good when it’s tucked away on a highlights reel somewhere that doesn’t involve your team. When it knocks you out of Europe altogether the joke loses it’s taste.

Bolat’s bullet header was merely the latest in a long line of problems to strike AZ Alkmaar since they became Dutch champions last season. Poor form, financial strife, boardroom and managerial upheavals – AZ have had the lot. And with AZ’s latest defeat to PSV Eindhoven leaving them some 22 points behind league leaders FC Twente at the season’s halfway point it looks as though May’s league title will not be the dawning of an era of sustained success AZ fans might have wished for.

Gold turns to dust

It was only a matter of months ago that AZ Alkmaar turned Dutch football on it’s head, smashing the mighty Feyenoord-PSV-Ajax ‘Big Three’ hegemony with a fast-paced, counter-attacking, slick style that married ruthless forward play with rough, robust defending. As true to a Louis Van Gaal side as you can imagine.

But Van Gaal soon got itchy feet at the DSB Stadion and left in the summer to take over at Bayern Munich. Ronald Koeman was appointed AZ’s new manager and handed the responsibility of overseeing the club’s first ever Champions League campaign as well as a push to retain the title. Despite inheriting the bulk of that title-winning squad though (Demy de Zeeuw’s departure for Ajax being one major loss), Koeman’s impact in Alkmaar, just like in Valencia, was sub-standard.

He started well enough. AZ won the Dutch Super Cup, thrashing Heerenveen 5-1, and their early league form was punctuated by a 6-0 win away at RKC Waalwijk. But before long it all started to unravel for Koeman and players’ performance levels began to drop markedly at a time when other teams were doubling their efforts to claim the newly-crowned champions’ scalp. An opening day 3-2 defeat at Heracles looked less of a blip when tallied with three straight defeats in September. AZ then needed extra time to beat Ajax’s reserve team Jong Ajax in the Dutch KNVB Cup, bringing further blushes, before their dreams of retaining the championship were dealt two crushing blows with consecutive defeats to title rivals FC Twente and Ajax.

The cracks that had started to appear became holes. By November, AZ were way behind pacesetters Twente and winless in the Champions League. Question marks arose over Koeman’s style of management, with rumours his relaxed manner did not offer the strict regime or tough love the players needed.

“Maybe we are not mature enough as a group to pick up results,” AZ captain Stijn Schaars stated after a 2-1 home defeat to Vitesse Arnhem. “We should all look in the mirror but we need a strong man in front of us.” The club’s board took the apparent hint. Koeman was sacked the next day. Dick Advocaat was appointed his replacement. Advocaat will have to balance his job at Belgium with trying to steady the AZ ship in Holland. Eight defeats in seventeen games sees them 7th, way off the pace.

No money more problems

Unfortunately for AZ Alkmaar supporters, the problems are not merely restricted to the field of play. In fact if anything it gets worse off it. The claws of the global financial crisis have not evaded AZ’s reach and it’s impact proved particularly troublesome for both the club and backers DSB Bank, who were declared bankrupt at the end of October 2009.

Dirk Scheringa is the man behind both bank and football club. A former police officer, Scheringa founded DSB Bank in 1975 as a private financial services company. The bank flourished and Scheringa, a “soft-spoken an with a permanent smile,” made a fortune, part of which he used to plough funds into AZ Alkmaar. He became owner and chairman in 1993 boasting AZ would win the league which, in fairness, they eventually did. The club’s 200
9 title win was sweet reward for Scheringa after he bailed AZ from the brink of financial meltdown in 2005, buying up the club’s shares after they went into 67 million Euros worth of debt. DSB Bank became chief sponsor, including on shirts, and the stadium was renamed DSB Stadion.

NRC Handelsblad describes Scheringa as “an unscrupulous, tough business man. He is not one to look for compromise in a conflict situation; he chooses confrontation,” and this confrontational style appears to have won enemies along the way. Associated Press reported that DSB were “well outside the corridors of political power [and] it’s growth in recent years upset the status quo in a market with just a handful of competitors.“

Recently, on the advice of a whistleblower who railed against the bank due to alleged financial mispractices, customers of DSB withdrew 1/6th of the bank’s €4.3 billion worth of deposits, leaving DSB and Scheringa pretty much up shit creek. Scheringa had hoped for a private sale or a government bailout but neither were forthcoming, prompting him to question why DSB were beyond assistance but banks like ING and ABN Amro received multi-billion bailouts. Either way, the powers that be let DSB Bank fall and they were declared bankrupt at the end of October 2009. Scheringa promptly stepped down as AZ president.

AZ Alkmaar now face very testing times financially, particularly with the loss of Champions League and indeed all European revenue. With DSB and Dirk Scheringa no longer around debts are climing and it is thought the club will have to cash in on some saleable assets (i.e. their top players) in order to balance books. That could mean imminent moves away from the DSB Stadion for the likes of attacking sensation Mounir El Hamdaoui, whose 23 league goals last season were instrumental in AZ’s title success, and Moussa Dembele, the 6ft 1in powerhouse Belgian international striker.

After AZ’s last title win in 1981 the club, then named AZ 67, finished the following season 3rd and won the Dutch Cup. At the halfway point in the season after their recent 2008/2009 triumphs, even those achievements look out of reach. AZ Alkmaar lived the dream under Louis Van Gaal. Now they are waking up.

AZ Alkmaar, Dutch Eredivisie, Dutch Football, Football and Finance, Holland, Louis Van Gaal, Mounir El Hamdaoui, Rise and Fall, Ronald Koeman