PORT HARCOURT, August 30, 2017 - TheNetherlands have never had it this good in women’s football. From claiming amaiden UEFA Women’s EURO title - on home soil, to securing first-timequalification for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, before dominating nominationsfor this year’s UEFA and FIFA Women’s Player of the Year awards, of which theformer has already been bestowed on an Orange Lioness, Lieke Martens.
It has been a storied summer to remember forDutch football fans who have had every reason to smile and celebrate. But, asthe saying goes, ‘Rome was not built in a day’ and with regards to women’sfootball in the Netherlands, no one understands this better than Vera Pauw, aformer national team player and coach, whose legacy is etched in its growth anddevelopment.
Pauw told AIPS: “It was the picture that wehad when we created the policy in 2004.”
The 54-year-old was coach of the Netherlandsfrom 2004 to 2010 and in that time she led her side to the last four of theUEFA Women’s EURO 2009 on their debut at a major final tournament despite beingthe lowest ranked of the 12 qualifiers. A feat for which the squad earnedprofessional contracts from the Dutch government. The former Oranje captain,who played between 1986 and 1998, became the first Dutch female to achieve theprofessional coaching licence in 2005 and is the visionary behind the women'sEredivisie.
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‘It’s been a huge fight’
The Jeugdplan Nederland (Netherlands YouthPlan) policy saw the introduction of mixed gender football. A grassroots systemthat allows talented boys and girls play together till they are 19 years old.“We changed even the name of the leagues, it was not boys’ leagues anymore butit was youth leagues so girls and boys were playing together at a level thatsuited them,” Pauw explained further.
However, the transition from mixed genderfootball to women’s football brought about yet another challenge.
“[It] was the moment that they droppedactually from five times training a week and highly qualified coaches back totwo times in a week in a corner of the pitch late at night and volunteers,”Pauw revealed. “So we had to do something on the top level and in 2007 torestore that part we set up a premier league with teams connected to seniormen’s clubs.
“All the (female) players were playing inamateur clubs and they were all deprived from any expertise of internationalfootball because all that expertise was in men’s football in the men’sprofessional football leagues so that is why we wanted to connect to thosemen’s professional teams and that has been the crucial bit. It’s been a hugefight but connected to that we had set up talent teams next to the professionalclubs… so it was a total package from six to top level.”
In recognition of her contributions, Pauw wasnamed ‘Knight of the Royal Dutch Football Association’ in the opening match ofthis year’s UEFA Women’s EURO.
“Every generation is preparing the ground forthe next one. When Vera was coach, she created a platform at the KNVB that hasmade it possible to improve the conditions for women’s football. That’s thereason why she ultimately led the national team to the EURO for the first timein its history,” said this year’s title-winning coach, Sarina Wiegman, toUEFA.com.
Pauw then told AIPS: “I think with the successof 2009 we had aimed on players winning contracts abroad in the top leagues andthat is exactly what happened … the top players gained experience at theinternational top leagues and that brought it all together.”
Recently crowned UEFA Women’s Player of theYear, Lieke Martens is currently at Barcelona following her move from FCRosengård. Vivianne Miedema and Daniëlle van de Donk are at Arsenal whileShanice van de Sanden plies her trade for Liverpool. In all, 12 players inWeigman’s UEFA Women’s EURO final squad were attached to clubs in England,Germany, Sweden, France and Spain.
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‘This legacy will last forever’
There are 153,000 women and girls currentlyregistered as players with the KNVB football department, which is almost doubleof the approximately 88,000 registered in 2006. The number is expected to riseeven more following a memorable UEFA Women’s EURO.
The Netherlands’ six games sold out for anaggregate attendance of 110,897 - a record for a single nation at a UEFAWomen's EURO - breaking the record Dutch attendance for a women's footballmatch three times. Meanwhile millions tuned in for broadcasts and got involvedvia social media.
“It’s amazing. It’s really even a bit over thetop but it’s fantastic for women’s football,” Pauw enthused. “The celebrationsduring the games and after the games were immense and overwhelming and everygame the whole stadium was sold out, it was like a seas of orange in thestadiums.”
“The day after they grabbed the title therewere about 25,000 people celebrating their win together with them in a specialevent where they showed the trophy and there were still celebrations of theindividual players in their individual villages and still ten thousand tofifteen thousand people showing up to just celebrate it with the players.
“So this legacy will last forever it wouldnever ever be anymore that anyone would say that girls or women cannot playfootball or it’s not meant for them… because this was just fans and playerstogether and that showed it all. There was an energy that nobody had everexperienced in the stadium so the legacy will last forever and I think that fornow the key sport that players will choose will be football, girls andboys," Pauw concluded.
Apart from the Netherlands, Vera Pauw has alsobeen coach and Technical Director of Scotland women's national team(1998-2004), Technical Director of the Russian Football Union (2010-2012) andmost recently, coach of South Africa women's national team (2014-2016).
Follow Chibuogwu Nnadiegbulam on Twitter@Chibuogwu_N
