Valentijn Driessen is once again lashing out at fellow journalists. The head footballer of The Telegraph finds it disappointing that several editors-in-chief allowed themselves to be 'silenced by King Louis van Gaal'.

Last Friday there was a meeting of the Dutch Society of Editors-in-Chief. This is a consultative body of editors-in-chief of Dutch newspapers, magazines, news agencies, radio and television programs and websites. Louis van Gaal, former national coach of the Dutch national team, was also invited.

In the podcast Kickoff Mike Verweij and Driessen discuss that meeting. “Like a good journalist, I tried to find out what happened there, but the shutters remain closed,” says Verweij. “It has been agreed that nothing will come out.”

That agreement seems to have come from Van Gaal. “This is how you rule as a king,” says Driessen. “Then you also have all the editors-in-chief in your pocket. 'They are all top journalists, they all ended up in that place.' And then they allow themselves to be silenced by Louis van Gaal.”

Driessen would never accept such an agreement. “Then you better not go. This is exactly what Louis van Gaal always does with the writing journalists: it all has to be in the newspaper exactly the way he wants it…”

Driessen has heard from colleagues that Van Gaal always wants to view one-on-one interviews before publication. “They all get back sheets with red lines and corrections. Normally you only remove factual inaccuracies, but Van Gaal adjusts quotes and even facts. All kinds of things, so you actually shouldn't want an interview.”

Driessen himself has never interviewed Van Gaal one-on-one. “I'm not one of them, because he doesn't want to be interviewed by me. Fine, no problem.”

Valentijn Driessen about Rik Elfrink

Driessen was recently critical of the election of Rik Elfrink as NSP Sports Journalist of the Year. “That really didn't make any sense,” Driessen said The the Dutch Winter, the talk show of Hélène Hendriks. “Elfrink spends a lot of time in the combine with Marco Timmer from VI and they get everything from Marcel Brands (general manager, ed.) and PSV. I don't want to be rude about that, but that is just too simple.”

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