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 →
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 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 →
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 →
Our second league game, against FC E-Star, ended in another 8-0 victory.
Because of the recent earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture the team wore black mourning armbands to acknowledge the casualties and those affected.
After a long preseason in which we made the first steps to build a professional club in Iwaki, the official kick off to the season was made on Sunday April 10th 2016.
It was clear that this first game could not go by unnoticed. Our own staff together with the team of Domecorp wanted to make this a special occasion that would make an impact on our future supporters. They pulled out all the stops. Every school was visited with free invitations. Radio and TV announcements were made to attract as many fans as possible. Continue reading →
