Saturday morning: The sun is shining on the field and music sounds over the site of WSC Waalwijk. Fields and canteen are cared for. Also the changing rooms, made of gray brick with small tilt stalls, too high to look outside, look up like those of an average amateur club.
But step in and you immediately see the poor condition of the building. The changing rooms date from the eighties and are heavily outdated: too small, poorly ventilated, not sustainable and, moreover, too little in number.
“We are happy if we manage to give each team a dressing room,” says director Marc Leijtens. The club has grown strongly in recent years with the arrival of a women’s department. Three teams in one dressing room is no exception, says player Sterre Ophorst, who plays in Onder-20. Gerard Corvelijn (77), a volunteer at WSC Waalwijk, says that every Saturday morning he has to move things from teams to one side of the dressing room to make way for a second team.
Also in the field of sustainability, the changing rooms are no longer of this time. Each room has an outside door, which means that heat is lost, windows are open as standard due to advancing fungus, and in the meantime there is plenty of fires. With new changing rooms, the club would save an estimated 60 to 70 percent on energy costs.
Whether there will be a subsidy available for the new construction plans in Waalwijk next year is uncertain. This uncertainty applies to many amateur clubs now that the so-called Bosa scheme-for years the financial pillar for the purchase of sports material, new construction and sustainability-is being reduced considerably in the coming years.
Where 74 million euros was available this year, only 20 million will remain in 2028. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport was given the task to cut 250 million euros on sports subsidies, of which Bosa had to hand in the majority. For many associations that is a heavy blow: the majority of accommodations dates from the 1970s and is in urgent need of renovation, says Marc van den Tweel, director of NOC-NSF. According to the KNVB, more than two in three sports locations with overdue maintenance or an urgent sustainability task.
That prospect led to political action earlier this month. A motion by CDA MP Inge van Dijk and SP’er Michiel van Nispen, in which they call for a financial alternative with a similar procedure for the falling Bosa support, received a majority. However, it is not yet certain that there will be extra money. “You don’t benefit from policy without resources,” warns Van den Tweel. “Nobody is against sport, but the willingness to invest in it structurally is crucial.”
Clubs in uncertainty
Taking care of the Amsterdam AFC IJburg too. The canteen is in an old director of which the permit ends in May 2028. “Then there must be something new,” says director Fedor Swart. The construction of a clubhouse costs around 2 million euros. “We are completely dependent on Bosa subsidy to achieve something.”
These financial worries come on top of the high energy bills: the old buildings are poorly insulated. Since 2020, the energy costs at AFC IJburg have doubled. “We rely on our reserves not to increase contributions,” says Swart. “But that is not a structural solution. If Bosa drops out, it actually means for us: end of the club.”
According to Daniel Klijn, director director of the RVVB (interest group of sports drivers), AFC IJburg and WSC Waalwijk are not the only clubs that get into the surplus. “Clubs do not disappear from one day to the next without a Bosa subsidy, but a large number will fall silently in the coming years,” he thinks.
Eva Oosters, sports alderman in Utrecht, sees how vulnerable sports clubs are, but points to the cuts on the municipal fund. “It is already difficult for a large city like Utrecht, but in smaller municipalities the water is really on the lips, I hear from fellow aldermen.” Because sport is not a legal task, it is difficult to free up structural money for it. “If a club comes into acute need, we will look at what is possible, but support is not at all obvious.”
Popular counter
The Bosa scheme was introduced in 2019 as a replacement for the tax VAT discount on sports material and maintenance. Clubs receive a 20 percent subsidy on the purchase of sports materials and new construction and 30 percent on making existing accommodations more sustainable. The counter is popular: at the beginning of January 2025, the budget of 74 million was overrun within three days, in April the counter was 114.7 million euros.
The uncertainty surrounding the scheme makes plans difficult. The counter opens on January 5, 2026, but only in March or April does WSC Waalwijk hear whether the subsidy has been awarded. “We want to build in June, during the summer break,” says director Leijtens. “But contractors need clarity well in advance to reserve staff and material. Two months is far too short.”
The cutback coincides with another change: from now on sports clubs can go to the Dumava scheme, a pot of 405 million euros from the climate fund for making social real estate more sustainable. Schools, hospitals, churches and cultural institutions can also claim this.
But in practice Dumava is hardly suitable for sports clubs, say Daniel Klijn and Robert den Ouden, director of Sportstroom, who guides clubs in subsidy applications. The procedure is more complicated, the subsidy percentages are lower and – especially – new construction is excluded. “Hospitals can hire consultants for this, not sports clubs,” says Klijn.
According to the club, new construction is usually the most cost -efficient option: WSC wants to apply for around 3.5 tonnes of subsidies. Because it is about new construction, the club cannot rely on Dumava. “While we do make the changing rooms more sustainable: from the gas, solar panels, insulation, LED lighting. Maybe we should still leave a piece of the facade, then we may still be eligible,” says Leijtens.
In addition, the technical requirements are often impractical. A minimum capacity of 20 Kilowatt applies to a heat pump, for solar panels at least 15 kilowatts. “That is far too big for a small accommodation,” says Den Ouden. “Clubs that want a few panels on their roof are outside the boat.” Klijn also sees a fundamental problem: most sports buildings are simply too old and poorly built to make more sustainable. “You can put a heat pump or double glazing in it, but in fact such a seventy-sided hall must be flattened and rebuilt.”
That is why Van Dijk and Van Nispen argue in their motion for adapting Dumava, so that the scheme is better in line with sports clubs and can also finance new construction.
A trend of privatization
According to Klijn, the cutbacks on Bosa fits into a wider trend. “Until the 1980s, unwritten that municipalities took care of the accommodation and volunteers for the game. With the rise of the participation society, outdoor sports buildings were privatized, and so maintenance suddenly ended up with the associations themselves. The question is whether you can ask for such responsibilities from volunteer boards.”
For Van den Tweel (NOC-NSF) the discussion is about more than money. He fears that the unique Dutch association culture will be under pressure. “With 4.3 million athletes, club life is the backbone of sport in the Netherlands. Every week I have foreign visitors who look at how many Dutch people are committed to their club with admiration and a little envy. If contributions rise and associations disappear, that not only affects the sport, but also the vitality of society.”
In politics, the conviction grows that a structural approach is needed. Mohammed Mohandis (GroenLinks-PvdA) argues for a national plan in which the government and municipalities make all sports facilities more sustainable within five years. “After agriculture and housing, sports, measured in square meters, is one of the largest sectors in the Netherlands,” he says. “That also includes a strong responsibility from the government.”
For the time being it remains exciting for associations such as AFC IJburg and WSC Waalwijk. “If Bosa fails, our plan cannot be realized. Gaking 3.5 tonnes from the members is not feasible,” says Leijtens. “Not a club without Bosa,” says Swart van AFC IJburg. “And without a club no football for 1200 children from the neighborhood.”
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