The football zone has been an integral part of the sports journalism landscape since 2001. In more than twenty years, the platform has grown into the most visited football website with between 4.5 and 6.5 million unique users each month and an average of about two hundred million page views. The supporters are loyal and, partly because of this close involvement, they are also regularly critical. On August 1, the new football season will start for the editors and Justus Dingemanse, since this spring Head of Football Zonetells in an open letter about the plans and substantive choices.
“First of all, a huge thank you! Without you, Voetbalzone does not exist, because its success is built on the large community of football enthusiasts who want to be informed daily about the most important football news and the circle of opinion around it. Many users, myself included, sometimes prefer to read the reactions to the messages than the news itself. That is why ‘Talk about Football’ was at the top of the website for many years. In addition to the mutual pen battles, Voetbalzone itself is also regularly the direct object. An important gauge of public opinion for me, in addition to the contact form whose responses have recently been forwarded directly to my inbox. In particular to get a good idea of what is going on and to work on a better product.
Behind the scenes, a lot has changed. Voetbalzone has become part of Footballco, a network of major (online) football publishers, including the worldwide Goal.com with editions in eighteen languages, the German SPOX, the Italian CalcioMercato, the Arabic Kooora, talent platform NXGN, women’s football platform INDIVISA and football cult medium MUNDIAL. In addition, our own (chief) editorial team has been almost completely renewed in the past year and you may have noticed that this transition was unfortunately occasionally accompanied by a miss, sometimes even for open purpose. The team is now complete and we have a new, transparent vision for the future that we are happy to share with you as a user.
This course is best captured in ‘Everything about football’. Due to the large number of users, preferences vary enormously and we try to create the widest possible range of football-related matters. The editors monitor the success of our articles and messages throughout the day, and therefore know better than anyone what the VZ visitor likes to read. The conclusions of this are sometimes surprising. Also for us. For example, the best-scoring article on Voetbalzone ever is a message about Yolanthe and her new flame with Wesley Sneijder’s reaction to it: the page was visited 1,364,466 times. Let’s just say there’s no arguing about taste.
At the same time, this type of message also encounters a lot of resistance. Because although the numbers speak for themselves, some of the users are horrified by this reporting. As creators, we sometimes even read comments like: ‘This does not belong on Voetbalzone!’ which indicates the level of involvement. And within our team there is always a discussion about what fits and what doesn’t. Our short answer to that: everything our audience wants to read, is ethically responsible and (indirectly) related to football. This translates into a menu of options with something for everyone. The option to ignore specific, recognizable content plays a central role in this.
The most user-friendly working method is also often discussed. For example, do we write a completely new article with an additional news item or do we provide the message with an update so that the comments are less current? Following community suggestions, we’ll only use updates from now on if it doesn’t affect user responses. Furthermore, inviting headlines that make visitors curious have been a feature of our reporting since the start. There are now clear guidelines for this, so that it remains clear what the article is about and you as a reader know what to expect after clicking on a headline.
After all, the football zone remains a free, but commercial product that depends on a large reach. The main part of the offer will continue to consist of repackaged (inter)national news, creating a fairly complete overview of all the relevant football news of that moment. We often rely on other media as a source, which we mention directly in the first paragraph. In addition, Voetbalzone also conducts its own journalism with its own daily content, which forms an increasing part of our package. Within this, there is an eye for more than just scoring content and space for specific target groups and niches: background stories, interviews, reports, competition visits, podcasts, videos and our programs Leaders, Join the conversation, In the Zone and vlogger for example. Also the partnership with UEFA Futsal EURO 2022 and the association with the Kitchen Champion Division fit in perfectly with this.
Because it is becoming increasingly difficult to speak to the key players in football themselves, the (digital) environment of top athletes has started to play a greater role. Conversations with people around the footballer, such as family, friends, partners and journalists are a regular source and the social channels of the players themselves have also become important. As a result, private life and the entertainment side of the sport have received more attention. Because some users are not interested in this, we make this content clearly identifiable using the headline and icon on the front page. For example, all boulevard messages are now provided with a clear ‘Goals & Gossip’ label and there is a disclaimer for precarious content. In addition, the comments under these kinds of articles are often off because they give little cause for discussion and regularly become a repository for complaints from users for which the article was not actually intended.
The responses have been monitored and supervised for many years by a group of active users who operate independently of the editors. These (main) moderators use an objective set of rules to keep the digital environment liveable. This is a time-consuming activity that sometimes involves blame and mounting emotions. Many online media have therefore lost the ability to respond over the years. Because Voetbalzone revolves around you as a user, we choose to keep this option – as good and bad as it goes. Off-topic discussions are often removed, even if complaints about censorship and club preference are lurking. At the same time, there is room for (constructive) feedback via messages and the contact form, and nowadays this is almost always answered personally.
“Where are the Bosphorus superpowers going?”
The second ‘Tribune Sounds’ focused on an extensive piece about the Turkish superpowers.
We have also started the readers’ section Grandstand Sounds to accommodate pieces of enthusiastic users. Football zone used to have many Club Experts and other enthusiasts who came up with interesting stories about their area of expertise. We are also experimenting with new offerings. In the run-up to WEURO 2017, for example, we decided to occasionally post something about the the Dutch Lionesses, which a substantial part of the public appreciated and has therefore remained part of our offer. Attention for the eDivision in turn was less popular and has therefore almost completely disappeared from the platform. As a result, Voetbalzone automatically forms an organic representation of the wishes of the public and that process is quite democratic. The claim that Ajax gets by far the most attention with us is justified and true due to their huge fan base. At the same time, we also try to get a good picture of the clubs for which there is less interest.
In order to make the complete offer possible, advertising revenues are necessary for a healthy business. Although banners, advertorials and commercials can be experienced as annoying, Voetbalzone derives its right to exist from this. A big plus of this (minor) inconvenience is that the offer remains free for you as a visitor. Work is now underway on the development of a completely new website to further improve the user experience. It is expected that this will gradually become visible on the website after the World Cup.
So much for this little insight into our considerations and plans. Do you have your own ideas about how Voetbalzone can improve or do you want to share your vision on our policy? Below you can finally comment on topic and we will follow the reactions with interest. In addition, you can always contact us directly via the contact form or the colophon. Thanks again for your visit and on behalf of the entire team, I wish you a great football season!”