The handball women of VOC are currently homeless. Refugees are accommodated for an indefinite period in the Elzenhagen sports hall in Amsterdam-Noord. Last Thursday, the handball players had to abort the training after twenty minutes, because workmen had to prepare the hall for use.
A number of construction workers told trainer Rachel de Haze on Thursday that her team had to leave the sports hall. “We didn’t know anything and I thought it was a joke,” says an irritated Rachel de Haze. “At first I pretended my nose was bleeding and we just started training, but after twenty minutes we had to leave.”
The decision for the reception of refugees in sports hall Elzenhagen fell on his roof with chairman Andre Zeldenthuis. Nevertheless, he immediately started looking for a solution. “We canceled Friday’s training and immediately entered into a conclave with the handball association (NHV). We wanted to postpone the match against SEW on Saturday. The association seemed to agree with that request, but on Friday afternoon it was decided that we had to The home game was suddenly transformed into an away game in the SEW sports hall.”
Top sport unworthy
Partly due to the poor preparation, VOC lost 31-36 to SEW yesterday. De Haze blames her own players, but is also very disappointed in the decision of the association. “We play in the top of the Eredivisie. Our girls must be mentally strong enough to perform even with less preparation. At the same time, I am very disappointed in the handball association. VOC always thinks along with the association and is the main supplier of the national team. But now that we are in trouble, nothing is being done in return. The choices the federation makes are unworthy of top sport at the moment.”
Wait five weeks
The future for the Amsterdam handball players is uncertain for the time being, says chairman Zeldenthuis. “We hope to be able to train again on Monday, but that is still unclear for the time being. Contact with the responsible organizations is difficult. We hear from the media that the sports hall will not be available for three weeks. We have contacted the responsible alderman, but there we expect little from it. By means of an e-mail we learned that there would be an answer somewhere within five weeks. We will look for a suitable solution ourselves for the coming period.”
Next Saturday, VOC has an away game at VZV on the program. Whether the match will go ahead will have to be revealed in the coming week. NHV could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing.