Glasgow Rangers FC, Press

WATP Magazine

The following article was recently published in WATP Magazine.
Pieter Huistra spent five successful seasons at Ibrox after completing a 300,000 GBP move from Dutch side FC Twente in August 1990. And he recalled how his move from the Eredivisie side to Ibrox came around in quite unexpected circumstances.

“My agent met with Graeme Souness during the draw for the UEFA Cup. He arranged a trial for me with Rangers on their pre-season camp in Italy. Obviously, this went well and I became a Rangers player.”
Huistra, who is now managing Japanese side Iwaki FC after spells in charge of clubs such as FC Groningen and De Graafschap, explained how he got into coaching and just how much he is enjoying living in Japan. Continue reading →

Iwaki FC

Update Iwaki FC

Japanese football never stops. Even in midsummer when the temperature rises far above 30 degrees the football goes on.
The J-leagues have started its second stage. The lower leagues have started their cup campaigns.
Iwaki FC has joined these competitions. Last weekend we played in the provincial stage for the Emperors cup, the FA cup for Japan.
In two days we played two games. The quarter and the semi final.
We managed to win both games and qualified for the final. In the final we will meet J3 club Fukushima United. On August 21st the game will be played on a neutral ground. This will be a nice challenge for our young team.
We played a lot of friendly games against professional clubs over the last two months and had some decent results but a real game like the Emperors’ Cup is worth a lot more in the development of the players.
First though we are preparing for the regional final for the Member of Society Cup. This will be another good test to see how the team can handle the opponents and the circumstances.
In the meantime the players are keeping up the hard work every day and continue their development and that of the team.
These are exciting times for everyone involved in Iwaki FC!
Also, one more day remains for talented footballplayers to subscribe for this year’s Combine Talent Day.  Show us your skills, subscribe here:  

To follow Iwaki FC on Facebook, click here. For Twitter: click here.
Key to Success, Opinion, Perception

Key to success 2

In my search for an answer to the question” What makes countries successful in football”, I started in the first article with the conclusion that the the way football is organized makes a big difference.
The successful countries have a thriving club structure and do not  rely on the school system to develop the sport.
In succesful countries, small or large, there is always a stream of talents that comes through and is able to compete at the highest level. They have developed all the instruments required for top level football. In football that means technical ability, physical strength, tactical insight and the motivation and passion to become the best.

I believe that everywhere in the world there is potential football talent. Boys or girls born with natural talent for sport in general.
The importance and popularity of a particular sport will determine which way the talented individual will go. Continue reading →

Iwaki FC, Press

Interview: JLeagueRegista

An excellent background story on Iwaki FC, as featured recently on the website JLeagueRegista.

There is a scene in the popular Japanese movie “Hula Girls”, a film in  which a group of miners wives/relatives decide to form a hula dancing group to aid the development of a Hawaiian resort in a town faced with looming unemployment, in which to help the city’s dream of becoming a tourist destination Iwaki is presented with some palm trees. It doesn’t occur to some people that, with Iwaki being located in north eastern Japan, the palm trees might struggle to survive the harsh winter. It takes a group of people, led by one person with drive, backed up by another group of people with the means to help, to help the situation by rounding up stoves and fuel. Therefore giving the trees some much needed heat that, ultimately, helped them grow and survive. For Iwaki residents, overcoming obstacles, however big or small – or indeed catastrophic – is just something they do. Continue reading →

Iwaki FC, Managerial

First Silverware

Iwaki FC is a club with a big ambition. The club is completely new and operating for 4 months now. The club had no past, so no history, no culture and no trophies.
To build a professional club you need to have in mind the reason why you want to build such a club and how you want to position it in the present football landscape.
The goal of Iwaki FC is a clear one. We want to build a modern football club that is part of local community. It has to become a magnet for everything that has to do with football. It also has to have a social function that plays a binding part in in the local community. In order to achieve this we started the first initiatives to attract people to our club. It is good to see that the fanbase is slowly growing with every home game. Continue reading →

Key to Success, Opinion, Perception

Key to success in football

It is now more then one and a half years since I left the Netherlands to work abroad. First I went to Indonesia to become the technical director of the Indonesian FA. This was a different role in football compared to head coach. I am always interested to gain more knowledge and better insights in the secret of successful teams or organizations. In my new role I was automatically forced to look deeper in to these successes and what was the basis for it.

In my search I looked at countries like Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and the South American powerhouses like Brazil,  Argentina and lately Chile. And also the opposite, how is it possible that big and ambitious countries like England, America and the Asian countries where football is highly  popular cannot make the last step to the worlds elite. Continue reading →

A personal view on football