Onderstaand artikel verscheen in Dagblad van het Noorden op 17 september 2016
Article in Dutch newspaper, published Sept. 17, 2016.

Onderstaand artikel verscheen in Dagblad van het Noorden op 17 september 2016
Article in Dutch newspaper, published Sept. 17, 2016.
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
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
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