it's time to write about one of the biggest passions in my life and that is FC Twente! FC Twente is the Football Club of my hometown Enschede located in the eastern part of the Netherlands. After a turbulent last season, we relegated to a lower division. The club was on the edge of bankruptcy for like 3 times last year but with all the help from sponsors, and fans they managed to keep alive and we can work on our recovery now.
In this post, I will try to explain how we ended up in this situation.
Working on a dream
In 2004 Joop Munsterman started as the new chairman of FC Twente. He had a dream of making FC Twente one of the biggest clubs in The Netherlands who can compete for the championship every year together with the traditional top 3 clubs Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV.
And so he did. The first step was to expand the Stadium capacity and start growing in revenue, at that time FC Twente played in the Arke Stadium with a maximum capacity of 13.250 and a annual revenue of approximately €13 million. After some years of planning construction work started in 2007 and after building for more than 1.5 years they played their first Officiel match in the Grolsch Veste on 13 sept. 2008 with a new maximum capacity of 24.000. After ending fourth for 2 years in a row in the championship they ended second in the season of 2008/2009. So far all things were going very well.
Best Season in history
the season of 2009/2010 was the best season in the history of FC Twente. After a thriller of a season in which we stood on top of the table for almost the whole season, there was only one match left between us and the first championship win in the history of FC Twente.
After winning the last away match against NAC Breda 0-2 history was written!! This was one of the best and one of the most emotional days in my life and one I will never forget. I lost my voice for almost 4 days after singing and partying non-stop. The video below shows how we celebrated the championship, this last part of the highway to the eastern part of the Netherlands normally cost like 20 minutes but now thousands and thousands of fans blocking complete highways to welcome our heroes home. It took them almost 5 hours to complete the last part of the journey. Most of the fans were waiting in the City Centre of Enschede for the players but they did not make it in time. The next day the players and coach Steve McClaren were honoured at the stadium together with 70.000 fans.
The next season of 2010/2011 was also a very good one. We made our debut in the Uefa Champions League and played great matches against Tottenham Hotspur, Inter Milan and Werder Bremen in which we played very well. Unfortunately, we lost the championship to Ajax in a Thriller were both clubs played against each other for the title on the final day of the competition. The stadium was expanded again to more than 30.000 seats, the annual revenue rose to almost €50 million. What possible can go wrong? The future looked bright and Joop Munsterman (Our Chairman) was fulfilling his (our) dream.
Black day in the history of the club
Juli 7 2011 is a black page in the history of FC Twente. It was just before noon, Construction workers were busy expanding the stadium when the entire roof of the new part of the stadium came down. Several construction workers were buried under debris and the roof plates. Sadly two of them did not survive this drama. Afterwards, it became clear that mistakes were made during construction. Somehow this was the trigger for the Downward Spiral of my club.
From hero to zero
After some very successful years, I think our Chairman has lost reality. We bought key players from top clubs in the Netherlands, for example, Leroy Fer (at that time he was one of the key players of Feyenoord) something that would never happen before. We spend millions and millions on new players to make sure we play Champions League football. The salaries paid were going sky high. After not reaching the group stage of the Champions League we lost around €20 million in revenues. Although the management kept saying everything was okay more and more bad news spread around our club. People and Companies claiming their money, Issues about taxes with Dutch authorities and so on... there was not a single day without bad news around our club. After some seasons I think it was around 2015/2016 it became clear that our Chairman and his board of staff fooled everyone and that our club was close to dead. All management staff left leaving the club behind dying and the new board of staff was facing an almost impossible task to save the club. We almost relegated in the season of 2016/2017 after being punished by the Dutch Football Association but after a court case which we won we were allowed to keep playing in the highest division, however, this wouldn't stop us for relegating the next season in which we ended in the last place and relegated to the lower division.
The way back to the top
Last season was a very stressful year with a lot of uncertainties for both the club and the fans, the club was near bankruptcy but for now, it looks like we are in the calm water now. The results looking good, we share the 1st place in the championship despite the fact that most players came in last minute and did not have a decent preparation for this season. The club sold more season tickets than the years before and all financial arrangements were made with different creditors, so we can start rebuilding the club and regaining trust with all the Dutch football fans and clubs again.
Thank u all for reading and I will keep u guys updated about our progress this season and our way back the highest division.
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