Feyenoord has missed out on an investment in the club due to intimations and threats against Mark Koevermans, chairman Toon van Bodegom of the Supervisory Board announced on Wednesday at an inserted press conference. Together with vice-chairman Gérard Moussault, Van Bodegom explained the forced departure of general manager Koevermans. “It is extremely sad for the club,” said the Supervisory Board chairman.
Feyenoord has been working for a long time to bind an investor to the club. The news about the threats to Koevermans’ private address is extremely inopportune. The director’s house was defaced with graffiti in September, while stones were also thrown through the windows of the front door. “Yes, this hinders the search for an investor,” said Van Bodegom on Wednesday. “Because if that hadn’t happened at Mark’s home address, we would probably already have had an investor, who has also dropped out for this reason. So it harms the club not only at the moment, but also in the policy for the coming years.”
Van Bodegom calls Wednesday ‘a sad day for Feyenoord. “But the sadness of the whole story has of course already started with the incidents. It is not good for the reputation of the club, nor for the employees. We are of course very sorry that such things happen.” Feyenoord already had trouble finding a successor for Jan de Jong as general manager, but Van Bodegom expects that there will still be candidates to take over from Koevermans on December 1.
“Fortunately, we think we can still find people who can and want to do this job with passion. But I think we have to come to a solution with the government, the municipality and the KNVB. Because this cannot continue. I also want to be clear make that it is not only a problem for Feyenoord, because it does not only happen in Rotterdam. It happens throughout the Netherlands. We have to find a solution for this, because it is a situation that cannot be sustained for long.”
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