History of Feyenoord Rotterdam - Recent History

Recent History

During the UEFA Champions League 1999-00 Feyenoord participated in the UEFA Champions League for the second time. This time the club managed to finish second in their group behind Rosenborg B.K., but in front of Borussia Dortmund. Feyenoord reached the second group stage and secured wins versus Olympique Marseille (at home) and S.S. Lazio (away). Chelsea FC won both clashes and as a result Feyenoord had to win their last group match away to Marseille to reach the knock-out stages. The final result was 0-0 and Feyenoord were eliminated.

Feyenoord again participated in the Champions League in 2001-02, finishing third in a group containing FC Bayern Munich, Sparta Prague and FC Spartak Moscow. This meant Feyenoord had to continue their European season in the UEFA Cup 2001-02 instead of the 2nd Champions League group stage. The disappointment of failing to reach the second group stage eventually resulted in optimism and celebration. By winning over SC Freiburg and Rangers, Feyenoord faced fellow Dutch team PSV in the quarter finals. Both matches ended in 1-1 draws, and the clash went into extra time and a penalty shoot-out. Pierre van Hooijdonk who had a superb season by scoring many goals from free kicks secured Feyenoord's win by scoring in the 90th minute equalizer before finishing PSV off by scoring the last goal in the penalty shoot-out. A win in Milan (0-1) over Inter and a 2-2 return match in Rotterdam earned Feyenoord their spot in the final, in which Borussia Dortmund was the opponent. The final was held in De Kuip and as a result most spectators inside the stadium were Feyenoord fans. Feyenoord took a 2-0 lead thanks to another free kick and a penalty by Pierre van Hooijdonk. Early in the second half Jan Koller scored a goal to make it 2-1. Jon Dahl Tomasson then made it 3-1 and things looked good for Feyenoord. Dortmund only managed to score one more goal and the cup was won by Bert van Marwijk's Feyenoord.

A huge party erupted in and outside De Kuip not only because of the title, but also because the final was held several days after Rotterdam's political hero Pim Fortuyn was murdered. Lots of fans were still full of emotion before and after the match. As a result of Fortuyn's murder, the cup was not officially celebrated in the city center. Feyenoord hasn't won any further honours since the 2002 UEFA Cup win. They reached the final of the Dutch Cup in 2003, held in De Kuip, but were not able to beat FC Utrecht, which shocked the club with a 4-1 win. Sebsequently Feyenoord has yet to reach any more finals or to win any more Dutch Championship titles.

In between, Feyenoord and chairman Jorien van den Herik were found to be not guilty in 2002. The Attorney General however appealed, but in 2005, after three years of investigations the results stayed the same. Still, the Attorney General has not given up the case yet.

The 2005/06 season ended in disappointment for Feyenoord. The team challenged for the Dutch Championship for most of the season, but eventually lost out to PSV. The newly created Dutch play-offs then proved to be gloomy for Feyenoord. Ajax, which finished several points behind in the regular league, was Feyenoord's opponent in the play-offs. Ajax ouclassed them and Feyenoord lost out on a Champions League place. During the summer break Feyenoord had to sell two of their key players, Salomon Kalou and the very popular Dirk Kuyt. Only a small amount of the money became available to invest in new players. When Angelos Charisteas was signed from archrivals Ajax to replace Dirk Kuyt hundreds of die-hard fans pressured the Feyenoord board to force Van den Herik to resign.

In the meantime Feyenoord was placed under special guardianship because of their financial problems. In the Eredivisie the team was underperforming and Feyenoord hooligans gave the club a bad name in Europe due to several incidents. Blackburn Rovers midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen was hit by a plastic beer cup thrown from the crowd during a UEFA Cup match. A few weeks later in Nancy Feyenoord hooligans damaged the city prior to the match versus AS Nancy and during the match they broke through walls of glass, forcing the police to use tear gas, causing a 30 minute suspension of the match.

The UEFA charged Feyenoord at a disciplinary hearing on 7 December 2006., fining the club 130,000 Euros and issuing a suspended penalty of playing two matches behind closed doors. The UEFA appealed and demanded Feyenoord to be excluded from competition and to be suspended for the first upcoming season they qualify for Europe. Van den Herik still remained in function, but the pressure grew. He did not show up at the club anymore and left a lot of questions.

A group of some Feyenoord icons, with former chairman Gerard Kerkum as their leader, operated under the name of "Commissie Kerkum" to restructure Feyenoord's future. In December 2006 they published their thoughts and came to the conclusion that Van den Herik should leave the club. Still Van den Herik did not want to leave, but as the decision of the Commissie Kerkum was final he was expected to step back and he announced his retirement in mid December. Van den Herik himself said not the thoughts of the Commissie Kerkum were the key factor for his decision, but the upcoming final result in the fraud case was. The final try of the FIOD in their case against Feyenoord was dismissed on 19 December 2006 and Feyenoord had been cleaned from all blames. When this case was closed Van den Herik decided to step back and was temporary succeeded by Gerard Kerkum himself for the rest of the season, before Dick van Well will take over Van den Herik's position. A new start for the team was announced in January 2007, but the start was interrupted a few days later already. The results of the UEFA commission considering the story about Feyenoord hooligans in Nancy were made public and Feyenoord was excluded immediately from the UEFA Cup competition. The initial fine was reduced to a smaller fine of 60.000 Euros However, the club chose to appeal against the UEFA decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has announced that a final decision will be rendered 9 February 2007 latest.

In 2008 Feyenoord celebrates her 100th birthday and will organize many events throughout the year. The old "golden logo" will return as Feyenoord's official logo, which was presented at the 2007 new years brunch. During the summer a historical tournament will be held between Feyenoord and the three opponents they met in de European Cup finals they played, Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic FC (Feyenoord Jubilee Tournament).

Mid-way through the season manager Verbeek was sacked because of disappointing league results. His assistant, Leon Vlemmings, then took over the job as manager. The results in this period improved slightly, resulting in securing a spot in the playoffs for the final Dutch Europa League slot.

For the 2009–10 season, Feyenoord appointed former assistant manager and Feyenoord footballer Mario Been to take over from Leon Vlemmings. Been, after achieving minor European successes with NEC Nijmegen, was considered the ideal man for the job. Former manager Leo Beenhakker, at that time manager of the Polish national squad, took over the role as Technical Director. Partly because of this position, he was able to attract more investors to the club leading to some unexpected signings, such as Sekou Cissé, Dani Fernández and Stefan Babović.

In mid-January 2011 Leo Beenhakker resigned after multiple clashes between him and the Feyenoord Directors. His replacement was former Feyenoord player Martin van Geel, who at the time was working as Technical Director for fellow Eredivisie club Roda JC.

In July 2011, a majority of players in the squad voted to oust Been as club manager. Thirteen out of eighteen players voted that they had lost all confidence in Been's ability to successfully manage the club. Been's subsequent sacking became global news, if only because reports of Been's firing quickly became a trending topic on Twitter, leaving people around the world to wonder who exactly Mario Been was.

After Louis van Gaal turned down an offer to manage Feyenoord, the club sought out legendary former Barcelona defender Ronald Koeman, who had played for Feyenoord during the late nineteen nineties. With his eventual hiring as Feyenoord manager, Koeman became the first to ever serve as both player and head coach at all teams of the so-called "traditional big three" of Dutch football: (AFC Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord itself) Moreover, he played and managed these teams in the same order.

At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Feyenoord lost valuable players Leroy Fer, Georginio Wijnaldum and André Bahia to FC Twente, PSV Eindhoven and Samsunspor respectively. In return, the club restocked with players such as Jordy Clasie, Miquel Nelom, Guyon Fernandez and Kaj Ramsteijn, who came mostly from their own youth academy. Two other players were loaned, John Guidetti from Manchester City and Otman Bakkal from PSV. Feyenoord started the season well and played the first game of the Eredivisie, against the other Rotterdam club in the league Excelsior. As of March 2012 Feyenoord was in fifth place in the Eredivisie standings, potentially resulting in a Europa League spot for next season.

On 16 December 2011, it was revealed that Feyenoord had been placed in the more favorable second category (Categorie 2). Meaning that Feyenoord were no longer in debt according to the KNVB. They have earned this by the transfer of significant players and a large capital injection made by the organisation VVF (Friends of Feyenoord, Vrienden Van Feyenoord). However to stay in the second category, Feyenoord needed to obtain the same amount of points earned rounding up to or higher than 65 points. On 13 April 2012 Feyenoord was officially out of what has been described as the 'financial dangerzone' and was officially placed in the second Category. According to chairman of the club Eric Gudde the placing in the more favourable category came earlier than anticipated, he also congratulated the fans and promised to maintain the same policy until Feyenoord was completely healthy again and will never fall back into the 1st Category.

Despite not having to ask the KNVB for permission to invest in new players anymore, Feyenoord kept continuing the policy for the 2012-13 season, only contracting players that were either out of contract or available for a low transfer fee. John Goossens, Ruud Vormer and Daryl Janmaat were out of contract and signed a deal with Feyenoord over one with their old clubs. Mitchell te Vrede played for the affiliated football club Excelsior, as well as for the highest-ranked academy team Jong Feyenoord/Excelsior and was promoted to the main senior team. Harmeet Singh and Lex Immers are thus far the only two players who Feyenoord paid a transfer fee for. Singh, a Norwegian midfielder and the only non-Eredivisie player joining Feyenoord, was purchased from Valerenga IF, while Immers came over from ADO Den Haag.

On July 2, 2012, Karim El Ahmadi completed his transfer from Feyenoord to Premier League club Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of €2,600,000. This made him Paul Lambert's first signing as Aston Villa manager, and Aston Villa's second signing of the summer (following Australia international Brett Holman's move from AZ).

On July 15, 2012, supporters of Aston Villa uploaded a picture on Twitter which showed Ron Vlaar, Feyenoord captain since season 2010/2011, visiting the Villa Park stadium in Birmingham. Which had Martin van Geel confirm to the media that Vlaar wanted to leave Feyenoord.

After the incident Villa did not contact Vlaar, to which coach Ronald Koeman set up a deadline for The Villans, which ended on July 23, 2012, however Villa was on a pre-season tour of the US and thus not able to respond. On July 23, 2012, Vlaar told the public that he would not leave Feyenoord after all, and said that he felt that he was kept dangling by Aston Villa.

Four days later however Vlaar told the public that he would eventually be joining Villa, as he had agreed personal terms and would sign for Villa subject to him passing a medical. On August 1, 2012, Vlaar officially joined Aston Villa, signing a three year contract. Feyenoord supporters received the news generally mixed, with some congratulating and wishing the best of luck, others feeling betrayed by Vlaar for misleading them.

Stefan de Vrij would be taking up the vacant spot for captain, considering his time and experiences with Feyenoord, making Jordy Clasie, who because of his good play and tenacity soon became one of the most popular players among the supporters, vice-captain.

On August 7, Feyenoord had lost the third qualifying round of the Champions League against Dynamo Kyiv in both legs, which would secure a spot in the play-offs. Feyenoord was demoted to the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League. Ronald Koeman has said that Feyenoord was the better side over the two legs but missed a scoring striker, referring to John Guidetti, the loaned player from Manchester City one season earlier.

On August 10, 2012, Dutch-international and Málaga C.F. defender Joris Mathijsen confirmed signing a contract with Feyenoord for three years. Málaga had made clear to Mathijsen that he needed to find a new club to generate income for the financially suffering Málaga after Sheikh Al Thani left. Ronald Koeman has however kept de Vrij as captain, despite Mathijsen being more experienced on international and club level.

It was also revealed that at the Europa League play-off round Feyenoord will come across Sparta Praha, which Koeman calls "not unfavourable".