All players of football club SVZ from Zeijen are back in the Netherlands. Due to snowfall, the selection was unable to land at Schiphol after their winter trip to Lisbon last Monday and the trip was forced to be extended.
Part of the team flew to Düsseldorf on Thursday, the rest landed at Schiphol today. Unfortunately, the players who landed in Düsseldorf had to do without their suitcases for a while, because something went wrong with the luggage.
The players returned to a snowy Netherlands. “Most are happy to be home again,” says captain Gerard ten Brink. “Some of them wouldn’t have minded staying,” he jokes afterwards.
The football club started a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the expenses that are not reimbursed. “That started as a kind of joke, but with a serious undertone,” says Ten Brink.
When the promotion went on air, there was a lot of uncertainty among the 19 men who attended training camp. “We didn’t know yet when we would fly back and what the role of the airline would be in the extra costs.”
That same evening, the players felt guilty about the crowdfunding. “We saw other promotions on the website, for children with leukemia and someone raising money for a gravestone, for example,” says the leader. It has been decided to donate 750 euros of the 3,500 euros raised.
That money goes to the organization of the Zeijer Cycling Tour, which raises money for the UMCG cancer research fund. The remainder of the money raised will be distributed among the team to pay for the additional costs incurred by the extension of training camp.