Hague: Coup? What coup?

Hague: Coup? What coup?

The former treasurer of the GSC ESDO football club, Jaap Kanters, told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that a Moroccan 'coup was committed' in the club. The truth is completely different. Haaglandenvoetbal.nl investigated.


Many years ago, ESDO was forced to move out of their own complex and joined the GSC, who were struggling with declining membership numbers. The two clubs fused into GSC ESDO. Many former members of the Paraat club also joined the new club.


This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com


The GSC ESDO club continued having troubles and the Hague municipality threatened to terminate the rental contract for their fields. According to the municipality rules, a club must have a sufficient number of teams to apply for renting accommodations.

GSC ESDO made several attempts to turn the tide. They attempted to establish a women's division, to start a youth football division. Those attempts didn't have much success. Moreover, administrators left over time, either because they were getting on in years, or because they thought the younger generation should take over. As in many other clubs, this wasn't so easy to turn into reality.

Several years ago a group of Moroccan football players joined the club. They ensured an in crease in the membership - which prevented the termination of the rental contract - and also made the club more competitive. More people came ot watch the game, and members from the Moroccan community announced their candidacy for board members. These candidates did well for the club, spoke fluent Dutch (some were born in the Netherlands), and were active in social issues.

The new board was voted in during a general meeting on November 2009, a month after the former board broke up. As the new board says on their website, every member was able to apply for the vacant positions, and "it surprises us that Mr. Kanters sees this as a coup".

The new board started working for the club, and that resulted in winning the title in the fourth league, and for the first time, the club can join the third league this season. The new board highly values 'values and norms', and so last season they introduced for the premier team, that after the game, the players would honor the opposing team. This resulted in a nomination by the Zuid-Holland province.

The new board says that in the period between the installation of the new board and the end of the seasons, the members probably noticed that communications did not go smoothly between Mr. Kanters and the new board. This was partially due to the fact that the treasurer position was transferred from Mr. Kanters. They do not want to go into details, as this should be discussed between Mr. Kanters and the board, and they they will go to the media, it will be in the presence of Mr. Kanters, and they are convinced that this is the main reason why Mr. Kanters wants to leave the organization.

As for the departure of the recreational teams, they think the reason is because they've announced that starting next season soft-drugs and tobacco will not be allowed in the cafeteria and the dressing rooms. Alcohol and meat are not even up for discussion.

In De Telegraaf Kanters complained that most of the new board had been members for just a couple of years and had already been honored by the club.

Haaglandenvoetbal.nl reports that they were present when several of the 'old-time ethnic Dutch members' were thanked for their efforts and given gifts for their efforts in the recent season.

Haaglandenvoetbal.nl add that the De Telegraaf article already led to parliamentary questions by the PVV., and that it might have been wiser to first understand what exactly was going on.

Source: Haaglandenvoetbal.nl

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