The PvdA in Assen is enthusiastic about bringing in women’s football from FC Groningen. The party therefore wants to know whether sports councilor Albert Smit (Assen Central) will take this seriously. He is also enthusiastic and ready if necessary, but that is not the case yet.
The PvdA faction responded to recent statements by FC Groningen director Wouter Gudde in the RTV Noord podcast The Coffee Corner. In it, Gudde suggested that home games of the FC Groningen girls’ team might be moved to the city of Assen.
FC Groningen has plans to further roll out women’s football, but Sportpark Corpus den Hoorn is bursting at the seams. “It is a matter of time before really hard choices have to be made and teams have to move away,” Gudde said. Assen would be an option.
PvdA councilor Willard Bouwmeester seized his opportunity tonight in the Asser council to keep this ball up. Particularly because women’s football is currently experiencing ‘unprecedented growth’, both in terms of popularity and professional development.
“In our view, moving the women’s team to Assen can be seen as an opportunity to give this growing sport a more prominent place in our city, and thus give an impetus to Assen Sports City. Our party is interested in this development and We are curious to see how the council views this.”
The PvdA member would like to see the council welcome the women’s football players of FC Groningen ‘with open arms instead of taking a wait-and-see attitude’. Bouwmeester would like to know from sports councilor Smit whether he can ‘get the ball rolling’ and facilitate the possible arrival of the FC Groningen women’s team in Assen.
According to Smit, ‘noise’ has arisen in Groningen about women’s football, due to an accommodation battle in Groningen. “I called director Gudde myself to find out what the situation really is. So they are looking for a new training accommodation. They are now doing market research into where they could go. It is possible that the result of the study will end up outside the municipality of Groningen. lie, says Gudde, and that could also be Assen,” says Smit.
It is still unclear whether this should be an existing or new accommodation. But when it comes to the existing fields, the arrival of the Groningen football girls, according to the councilor, puts ‘pressure on the occupancy rate of the current fields’ in the provincial capital. But Smit acknowledges that women’s football ‘will certainly provide an extra dimension’.
The councilor will now wait patiently for FC Groningen’s location investigation. “But if Assen comes into the picture, we are open to it. Because top sport stimulates recreational sport, but that is something different than welcoming it with open arms.”