Feyenoord Falling Fast

Feyenoord fans are angry. The little road sign above gives a clue why. Stephen Farrell returns to elaborate on a Dutch downfall.

Fans of some of Europe’s biggest clubs have been having a tough time of it this season. Liverpool have been slow to get going in the Premier League, Bayern Munich are eighth after their worst ever Bundesliga start and even the previously dominant Inter Milan are sixth in Serie A, nine points off the pace. But all these problems pale into insignificance compared to those of Feyenoord.

Feyenoord are one of Holland’s ‘big three’ along with Ajax and PSV. Between them they have won the Eredivisie title in all but three seasons since 1965. Feyenoord themselves have taken the title 14 times yet after defeat at Groningen last weekend they sit in 16th position in the table. If they are there at the end of the season they will be forced into a play-off to stay in the top-flight.

As well as their domestic dominance, Feyenoord won the European Cup in 1970, the year before Ajax began their dominance of the competition, and claimed an Intercontinental Cup the next season. They have won two Uefa Cups, the last coming in 2002 making them the last Dutch club to win a major European title.

In contrast to teams like Leeds United, their decline has been slow and drawn out over the last decade. They have not won the Eredivisie since the 1998-9 season and not reached the Champions League since 2002-03. Last season’s fourth place was actually an improvement on their three previous seasons when they finished 7th twice and 6th once.

Their lack of recent success has meant less money for competing in Europe. With their rivals profiting from Uefa’s cash, Feyenoord have had to spend money they don’t have to keep up.

The Eredivisie TV money is minuscule compared to that of the English, Spanish and Italian leagues. As a consequence Dutch teams are no longer the force thy once were and Ajax and PSV Eindhoven are only able to remain dominant in the league thanks to competing in Europe. Feyenoord, as well as seemingly being unable to compete with their old rivals on the pitch, are now falling behind them financially as well. In fact Feyenoord’s situation is starting to get extremely precarious.

Chairman Jorien van den Herik resigned in 2007 bringing to an end an unpopular reign that saw him cleared of fraud charges in 2002. Since then, club have racked up debts of over 20 million euros. Despite some success in securing new investment following the installation of Leo Beenhakker as technical director, in July the club were put under financial supervision by the Dutch football association for the second time in five years.

Dutch teams now rely on developing talent and then cashing in when players attract the attention of Europe’s elite, but Feyenoord have been struggling with this recently. The 2006-07 season saw them raise several million euros through the sales of Dirk Kuyt and Salomon Kalou. Fans expecting this money to be invested in new talent were dismayed when the club brought in Angelos Charisteas, who had been fifth choice striker at Ajax. He failed to find the net for ten games before eventually managing nine goals in his 28 games for the club.

Desperate for Champions League football to revive their finances, the club splashed out on a number of other veterans. Jon Dahl-Tomasson, Roy Makaay and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst all failed to turn the team’s fortunes around whilst collecting large weekly pay-cheques. The most expensive of these signings have left (although Tomasson remains), but the club find themselves still in debt and heavily reliant on youth.

The problem is, Feyenoord can now no longer even rely on selling off the products of their academy to pay the bills, the club having sold half the rights of a number of these players to investors. Any money the club receive in the future from hot prospects such as Giorginio Wijnaldum will either go onto servicing their debt or straight into the pockets of those people who have invested in the club on the promise of receiving a share of the transfer money.

Short of funds they may be but it hasn’t stopped Feyenoord planning to build a new stadium. First mooted in 2006 the plans have, if anything, got even more extravagant over the years. The planned capacity has risen from 90,000 to 100,000 and now could end up as high as 130,000, making it the biggest stadium in Europe.

The stadium would form the centrepiece of the joint Holland-Belgium World Cup bid but it is unlikely Feyenoord themselves would ever be able to fill it. Average attendances are surprisingly good considering the teams problems. They remain above 40,000 despite falling from a high of just under 45,000 in 2007-08, the club’s centenary year. It’s a far cry from the dark days of the late eighties when attendances fell below 10,000. Even so, De Kuip holds 51,000 and planning for crowds of more than double that seems more than a little dangerous given the clubs on and off-field problems.

This season has been particularly humiliating for the team with the nadir coming in a club record 10-0 defeat to PSV. Whilst further results have not be quite as eye-catching the club have actually fallen in the league since then and are now behind even Excelsior Rotterdam, a feeder team containing seven players on loan from Feyenoord.

Nevertheless, relegation would be a massive surprise. Feyenoord still have a squad capable of beating most Eredivisie sides. But should the unthinkable happen, the Eerste Divisie can be an unforgiving place. Money may be tight now, but dropping down a division is going to be even more of a shock. Many clubs in that division have already gone under, most recently HFC Haarlem last season.

Simply avoiding relegation may not be enough for Feyenoord unless they sort out their finances. The club’s current financial model seems unsustainable to say the least. In any case, the fans are probably going to have to put up with a fair bit more humiliation from their rivals in the near future.

(pic via Catatan Bola on Flickr)

Dutch Eredivisie, Dutch Football, Europe, Feyenoord, Holland