Riemer van der Velde

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Riemer van der Velde (* 28. October 1940 in Bakkeveen , Netherlands ) is a Dutch entrepreneur and former football functionary , who was also active as a professional player temporarily. Van der Velde was chairman of the Frisian club SC Heerenveen for more than twenty years . He professionalized the provincial club and made sure that the second division club became an integral part of the Dutch Eredivisie . After his departure, he became honorary chairman of the club.

Live and act

Van der Velde was born in a village northeast of Heerenveen ; his father Fokke had a bakery and a grocer in Bakkeveen. Even at a young age, Riemer van der Velde and his two years older brother Wytze helped in their parents' business. After finishing elementary and secondary school, Riemer attended a business school. He then did military service as a cook for supplies in Haarlem . Van der Velde also played football for the club from Bakkeveen as a center forward . Johan Derksen , sports journalist and former professional, attests to van der Velde - against whom he had played himself - to have been “a gifted footballer”. Van der Velde later played for a season in the Dutch second division at Groninger Sport Vereniging Be Quick 1887 , but could not prevail there. Riemer van der Velde's second great passion was motorsport , he drove grass track races . He was active here until 1972, after which he remained loyal to motorsport as a functionary and sponsor until 1981.

In 1963, father and son founded a wholesaler for hotel and restaurant supplies , which initially sold Caraco ice cream and grew to more than 200 employees by the time it was sold to the Sligro Food Group in 1997. In 1964 he met Annie Idzinga, a Frisian korfball player . After dating ten years, they married in 1974.

On the initiative of a local car dealer, the heavily indebted SC Heerenveen turned to van der Velde in 1983. The entrepreneur was in September 1983 Chairman of the Association of the then about 37,000 inhabitants community and began a complete overhaul of the club. Within a very short time, the experienced businessman found a solution for reducing the debt of more than 1.6 million guilders (with a turnover of less than one million) with the help of Rabobank , the municipality of Heerenveen and the tax authorities. After midfield director Eddy Bosman was sold to the Go Ahead Eagles , van der Velde had restructured the club within a good six months. But the new chairman wanted more. The "gray mouse" of the second division should become an institution of Dutch football. Thanks to his understanding of football, this should also succeed.

The foundation stone of the Abe Lenstra stadium laid by Riemer van der Velde

In 1985 Riemer van der Velde brought in his compatriot Foppe de Haan as coach of the first division team. De Haan comes from a neighboring village of Bakkeveen; he had played for vv Heerenveen in the 1960s and had been a youth coach at the club for a short time in the 1970s. De Haan stayed until 2004 - temporarily as a trainer and manager, and temporarily as a sports director. Together they established a scouting system that found young talents who later switched profitably to larger clubs, including Jon Dahl Tomasson , Ruud van Nistelrooij , Daniel Jensen , Danijel Pranjić and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar . Together, de Haan and van der Velde celebrated the greatest successes of SC Heerenveen to date: the first promotion to the Eredivisie in 1990, the second promotion in 1993 with simultaneous reaching the KNVB Cup final , the first participation in the UI Cup , participation in 1998/99 at the European Cup Winners' Cup , second place in the Eredivisie 2000 and thus the first participation in the Champions League .

Van der Velde made Abe Lenstra the integration figure of the club, the former star player who was now dependent on a wheelchair due to a stroke. In the last years of his life, Lenstra regularly attended the games of the sc Heereveen, van der Velde himself pushed his wheelchair in the stadium. After Lenstra's death he arranged for the sports park to be renamed Abe-Lenstra-Stadion ; The new stadium, which opened in 1994, was also given this name, with a statue of Lenstra erected in front of the main entrance.

When Riemer van der Velde handed over the chairmanship in 2006, he had established the club among the first clubs in the Netherlands. He was made an officer and his wife Annie a member of the Order of Orange-Nassau . He is now the honorary chairman of SC Heerenveen and supports his club as an advisor.

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ Hij was een vooraanstaand grasbaancoureur en een begenadigd voetballer, who talk about onbegrijpelijke as prof mislukte bij Be Quick in Groningen. Johan Derksen, in: Afscheid van Riemer en Annie, een paar apart , Voetbal International from September 18, 2006
  2. ↑ The club Be Quick 1887 from Groningen was Dutch champions in 1920 and played in the Eredivisie from 1960 to 1962. After relegation he belonged again to the Eerste divisie for two years ; then he withdrew from professional football for financial reasons.
  3. ↑ Berend en Wimke Overwijk, Impressie reunie F. van der Velde BV , on the occasion of a meeting of the former staff, on Bakkeveen.nl on November 14, 2012
  4. ↑ Riemer van der Velde onderscheiden , FCUpdate.nl of September 29, 2006
personal data
SURNAME Velde, Riemer van der
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch entrepreneur, football official and player
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Bakkeveen