Valentijn Driessen would prefer to see FC Volendam disappear from the Eredivisie. The head footballer of The Telegraph criticizes the mismanagement the other the Dutch and would rather see a traditional Eredivisie club return to the highest level. “Of course, what happens there has little to do with professional football,” Driessen says in the podcast Kickoff by The Telegraph.

There has been a fierce power struggle at FC Volendam for a long time. Team Jonk was chased out of the Kras Stadium by Jaap Veerman, who moved from the Supervisory Board to the position of chairman. Things are going dramatically in terms of football: number seventeen Volendam is now eight points below the relegation line.

To make matters worse, top talent Lequincio Zeefuik also had to be sold to AZ at the end of January. Mike Verweij says: “If Volendam had just paid attention and extended Zeefuik's contract, because Team Jonk was busy with that and also on its way, you wouldn't have had to sell him to AZ for a few euros.” Volendam reportedly received half a million euros for the nineteen-year-old striker.

Verweij fears the worst for the club. “I'm worried about the future of Volendam. You actually end up back in the situation before Jan Smit, Wim Jonk and Keje Molenaar joined. They played for years at position seventeen, eighteen, nineteen in the Keuken Kampioen Division.”

Driessen is not sad about the crisis at Volendam. “Apart from the soap operas at Volendam, which are of course great, I would rather see FC Groningen back in the Eredivisie instead of Volendam. Of course, it all has little to do with professional football.”

“FC Groningen, ADO Den Haag or Willem II, those are clubs that I would rather see in the Eredivisie,” Driessen continues. “They have a greater regional significance than Volendam has for the North Holland region. That simply has a village function.”

Verweij stands up for Volendam. “If you see what great things FC Volendam has delivered to Dutch football in the past, it is of course a tradition club. Arnold Mühren, Gerrie Mühren, Pier Tol, Keje Molenaar, Joey Veerman.” Verweij also forgets Micky van de Ven, who is making waves at Tottenham Hotspur and is now also a Dutch international.

“That is also possible from the Kitchen Champion Division,” says Driessen. “Joey Veerman has never played in the Eredivisie with Volendam.”

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