Discord and disturbed relationships: what next with Jubbega?

Monday evening around ten. Joop Gall picks up his phone and doesn’t know what he is reading. Six days earlier, the coach of VV Jubbega heard from his board that the season was over, because it unilaterally decided to withdraw the first team from the competition. Now he sees that his team’s group app has exploded: “We’re going wild again.” Gall can hardly believe it.

The information circulating in the group app comes from VV d’Olde Veste ’54. This club moved heaven and earth last week to get VV Jubbega back into the competition. Due to the withdrawal of VV Jubbega, the Steenwijkers lost their leading position.

Olde Veste angrily went to the KNVB at the end of last week and investigated the legal options. At the same time, the selection of VV Jubbega also contacted the football association. The players announced that they wanted to finish the season, despite the decision of their board.

Disturbed relationships

The KNVB will change tack on Monday; the association places VV Jubbega back in the competition. The board will be informed about this in the afternoon. However, the board does not pass the message on to Gall or the players. They have to hear the news hours later from Steenwijk.

It says everything about the relationships in the heath village, which have been completely disrupted in recent times. More about that later.

Blundering KNVB

The KNVB initially agreed to the cancellation of VV Jubbega. That turns out to be a big mistake. The Football Association has therefore completely ignored its own regulations, which state under Article 12 that expulsion is only possible if a club does not show up twice.

The competition affairs department would have overlooked this in all haste, admits Martine Braam of the KNVB. “A further legal check led to a different insight.”

Furious

Back to last Tuesday. In the parking lot of VV Jubbega, Jan Wassenaar (58) slams his car door shut with a loud bang. He received a call from the canteen a little earlier. The message makes him furious. He immediately got into the car.

Emotions have already run high in the canteen. Some players and members are very hot, Wassenaar is also making his presence felt. There is swearing, shouting and for a moment the situation even threatens to become physical.

The six-member board is headed by Jut. The board members have just announced that they have withdrawn the first team of VV Jubbega, which has risen to the first division in recent years, from the competition.

Rich history Jubbega

The small village of Jubbega has a rich football history. In the 1960s and 1970s, the club even played at the highest amateur level for six years. Inside left Grietus de Vries even makes it to the Dutch amateur team. If Jubbega plays at home, the region will finish.

In the decades that follow, Jubbega declines. In 2015 the club was relegated to the fourth division. Jan Wassenaar sees it happen as a spectator. It stirs something up in the entrepreneur, born in the village when VV Jubbega was celebrating its heyday. Fourth class? That is simply not allowed.

Sponsors

Wassenaar finds people in his area who think the same way. Just like him, they are willing to put their shoulders to the wheel. Some in advice and assistance, others with financial support.

This makes it possible to attract good players from the region to the It Heidefjild sports complex. Former professionals also come to Jubbega, such as Henrico Drost (ex-SC Heerenveen) and Xander Houtkoop (ex-SC Cambuur).

The strengthened football team is achieving great results. The first team will be promoted from the fourth to the first division between 2016 and 2020. The village club is then holding its own well there.

The audience, Wassenaar and his seconds are enjoying; their club is back on the map. As a result, last summer we managed to attract a well-known trainer in Joop Gall (former FC Emmen, -SC Veendam and -FC Groningen).

Waning enthusiasm

Yet it is already clear that the golden years of VV Jubbega are finite. A selection for the first class is not free. While most clubs obtain the necessary budget in small amounts from a large group of sponsors, at small Jubbega the largest part now comes from Wassenaar.

Jan Wassenaar doesn’t even think that is the biggest objection, he says himself. According to him, that is the declining enthusiasm among other sponsors. It dawns on him that an end to the period is in sight.

He will also convey this message to Gall in the summer of 2023, when they discuss the future of the club together. Gall: “Wassenaar said: we want to have one more season, then it will probably be over.”

New Jubbega board

Last autumn, VV Jubbega received a new board after a period of administrative understaffing. The chairman is Henk Zwerver. In the distant past he played for the club; In recent years he followed the association from a distance.

He has reservations about the situation of VV Jubbega. The sporting successes are of course great, but have mainly been achieved by players from outside.

He notes that the bond between the first team and the village has diluted. Zwerver: “For players from the village, the first team had become unattainable.” Zwerver therefore sees its own players leaving for other clubs.

The board believes that things need to change. Jubbega must be removed from the village again. Zwerver: “Our idea was to take two years to do that. We would finish this season, continue to play at a high level next year and then wind down the project.”

Discord

During the winter break, at the end of January, the board sits around the table with Wassenaar. Zwerver: “Jan indicated that it was too much for him, too much of it had to come from him alone. He wanted to quit after this season.” Wassenaar confirms that reading.

The fact that Jubbega’s glory years are over is spreading like wildfire in the village. Wassenaar: “Many people indicated how incredibly unfortunate they found that.” It stirs something in him. “I started to get the itch again, I decided I wanted to continue.”

Wassenaar says that the board was aware of this, but according to Zwerver that is not true. “We only heard some things through the grapevine.” It is doubtful that Zwerver was not aware of this, because at the beginning of March this newspaper already wrote that internal discord had arisen.

Bad news KNVB

The board will contact the KNVB at the end of February. VV Jubbega explains that it wants to continue with players from its own village. Because these young football players cannot handle the first class, Jubbega asks if they can voluntarily drop down one or two classes after this season.

The board’s views are particularly resonate with ambitious (youth) players who hope to make it to the first team if the club takes a step back. At the same time, three members of the technical committee resigned at the beginning of March because they did not accept the adjustment of the ambitions.

The KNVB has bad news for the club. VV Jubbega can only return to the lowest level, the fifth division. Moreover, not on Sunday, but Saturday. Zwerver: “Not an option for us. Jubbega is a village of construction workers. They are not on the football field on Saturday.”

The board is at a loss, but has come up with a shortcut. If they simply remove the first team from the competition, then the KNVB has no choice but to relegate the club to the second division as punishment?

Draconian decision

No sooner said than done. The KNVB even appears to think it is an excellent solution and does not stand in the way of VV Jubbega. When the board announced the decision in the canteen last Tuesday, the bomb exploded immediately.

Gall: “The players and I were completely taken by surprise. It was absurd. We didn’t know what we heard.” Wassenaar: “A draconian decision, the board is putting the club to shame.”

Zwerver, at the end of last week: “We understand that it is extremely unsportsmanlike. Towards our players, staff members and other clubs. And also that it can seem selfish. But this is a choice for the preservation of the club.”

Couldn’t Jubbega have just played the first division Sunday with its own boys next year? “Then we would have gone off without a hitch in every match. Are you going to find a trainer for that? Can you ask that of a selection? Then even more players would have left,” Zwerver defends the board decision.

Chaos

The club is in chaos. In the days following the administrative decision, everyone chooses their own path. The board digs in its heels, players indicate that they want to continue playing football and Wassenaar and a group of supporters, including Olde Veste from Steenwijk, are investigating the possibilities of getting VV Jubbega back into the competition.

They are then not optimistic about their chances. Preparations are even being made for a farewell to Henrico Drost. The former professional will stop playing football after this season. Due to the withdrawal of the first team, that end came very abruptly. Wassenaar and others are therefore already busy with a special farewell match.

‘You’re going to play football again’

On Monday evening, Wassenaar suddenly received a message from Steenwijk: “You are going to play football again.” He heard nothing from the board of VV Jubbega, which had been informed for hours.

Wassenaar’s joy is no less: “We are back on the field, that’s what it was all about. If we go down, it will be sporting and fighting.”

Wanderer reacts disappointed. “We thought we had done the right thing for the club, but that has now been undermined.” He keeps the option of further intervention open. In theory, the board can ban the first team from playing. As a result, the KNVB could lawfully remove the club from the competition at a later date. Zwerver does not want to look at the cards: “The entire board must first consider the situation.”

Gall is happy that the season is being completed. “But I still have to see which team I can field in the coming weeks. When we were pulled out of the competition last week, some of the lads booked holidays.”

Division

VV Jubbega will play football again, but what now for the completely divided association? Zwerver: “I hope it will eventually blow over, we’ll wait and see. One thing is certain: the club will survive.”

It is doubtful whether this also applies to Wassenaar. He says: “The damage has been done, but the club’s honor has been restored. What happens after this season? I don’t think that’s so important anymore.”