Vv Gasselternijveen exists 100 years, making it one of the oldest football clubs in Drenthe. For a real Drenthe it is therefore not surprising to know a few facts about the club with about 230 members. Here are ten did-you-knows about the football club.
1. One of the oldest clubs in Drenthe
Vv Gasselternijveen is the oldest football club in the municipality of Aa en Hunze. As early as 1921, ‘only enthusiasts’ called on other football fanatics in the local media to report to the local hotel Boersma.
So it happened, but that was not yet the beginning of VV Gasselternijveen. There was some messing around with names before that. The first mention of the Gasselternijveense Voetbal Club is the 4-0 victory in February 1923 over Voorwaarts in Stadskanaal. The same year the club was combined with Stormvogels football club and they played under the name Hercules. A little later, the OBK association from Nieuw-Buinen also joined. The association was therefore renamed again at the end of August. This time definitive: vv Gasselternijveen. That is now exactly 100 years ago. The contribution was then 10 cents a week for players in the first team. Youth played for 3 or 5 cents.
A week full of festivities
Due to the 100th anniversary of the football association Gasselternijveen, all kinds of activities are organized in the week August 28 to September 2. Classics such as a reception, reunion, game afternoon and party. But also events like one girls’ football day (August 29) and a clinic with FC Groningen (August 31).
Perhaps the most notable event Get rich on Saturday September 2. On the grounds of football association Gasselternijveen, a fenced field is divided into a thousand sections. Before Gasselternijveen plays a match against the RTL Star Team, a cow walks around on this field for an hour. Everyone can ‘buy’ a section for 2 euros and if the cow is the first to shit in your section, you win the main prize of 350 euros.
2. Flying start
Vv Gasselternijveen was promising. When the Drentse Voetbal Bond (DVB) was founded in 1927, Gasselternijveen immediately became champion of the North Drenthe first division in the first season (1928-1929).
Players and the public often cycled for away games. But for the final of this season a bus was arranged to Assen. The Nieveners battled against Quickness, a team that no longer exists. According to a report in the newspaper, it was a worthless match to watch: the tension had sunk in the legs of the teams.
3. Started on a trap field and then moved four times
The first training sessions were held on ‘cut-up plots of pasture’ right next to the Hunze. Disadvantage: players were constantly angling balls out of the water. Café owner De Boer from Gasselternijveenschemond brought solace. He rented a plot of land from potato starch factory Oostermoer for the club. The players had to change behind a pile of potato leaves.
From 1929, the ‘Nieveners’ received a field from the municipality on the Burgemeester Gaarlandtlaan. A big improvement. Although in the 1940s people sometimes complained about maintenance: for example, there were holes in the hedge. The municipality made short work of it: ‘less proper use’, they said. If the ball went over the hedge, players crawled through to retrieve it. From that moment on, the municipality instructed the police to fine the hedge-crawlers for vandalism.
Due to municipal plans for a gymnastics hall, village hall and schools, the club moved in 1967 to sports park ‘De Hunze’ on the west side of the village. In 1975 new changing rooms and a canteen were built there, members of the football club helped with the construction.
4. Ladies got a discount
In the early years, spectators paid a fee to come and watch the game. They also wanted a female audience at the match. An article in local media from 1923 makes an appeal. ‘Ladies from the community, now also show on Sunday that you appreciate the good efforts of the football association, by at least honoring this match with a visit’. Women and children paid only 10 cents entrance fee for a match, where the men had to pay 20 cents.
Incidentally, the women were only allowed to participate on the field from 1988. The women’s football team turned out to be talented and in 1989 they immediately became champions of Drents.
5. Three championship years in a row
If you ask an old-timer at vv Gasselternijveen about the club’s historical highlight, you will hear about the championship years 1974, 1975 and 1976. The first team was promoted three times in a row: from the second division Drentse Voetbal Bond (DVB) to the first division. And from the fourth class KNVB, to the third class.
It was a highlight after a period of disappointment. Earlier (from ’63 to ’66) Gasselternijveen also played in the third KNVB division. The team was relegated in 1966, again in 1969 and again in 1972. The highest team then only played in the second division of the Drentse Voetbal Bond. Sportingly the low point of the first team, which had never played at that level in its history and never played again later. The causes: a declining membership base, financial misery, many suspensions and disinterest by some players.
How great was the euphoria when the club managed to promote year after year under the leadership of trainer Roelf Dijkhuizen. The number of members also increased exponentially. Nine teams were added in the 1974–75 season. In the years that followed, the first team would continue to fluctuate between third and fourth KNVB division.
6. Sometimes spoil a party
Suspensions were commonplace at VV Gasselternijveen. Not all players were sweethearts. Take the tall striker Ron van der Vlis: he was sent off three times in one season in 1990. In one criminal case, the KNVB made him wait six months for a decision. After yet another violation, the footballer announces that he will call it quits for the rest of the year. In the newspaper: ,,After the sliding, the referee shouted: ‘Van der Vlis, you are the cigar’. I’m fed up with it and don’t feel like getting caught for every little thing anymore. No one can convince me this year.”
But sometimes the less sporting actions had humor. Take, for example, a striking event in 2000 with the third team. The team – known more for the fun than the impressive football results – played against Nieuw Buinen. That team was in such shape that they could score the two hundredth goal in the match against Gasselternijveen. Were it not that the last man of Gasselternijveen, Rien Meertens, had also counted. To the great frustration of the orange and white, he decided to shoot ball two hundred himself behind his own goalkeeper.
7. Charity competition for building Rotterdam
In 1940 VV Gasselternijveen did something remarkable. In June, the club played a benefit match for the reconstruction of Rotterdam. To see this match against Eext, spectators had to pay 25 cents. More was also allowed. The total sum that the club sent to the construction committee was 220 guilders.
8. The princess in stiletto heels in the field
Queen Máxima (then still a princess) landed in 2012 in the middle of the lawn of the football club. That actually didn’t have much to do with VV Gasselternijveen, but with the presentation of the Golden Apple, because of a neighborhood initiative about pear trees. These (initially neglected) trees on Hoofdstraat-Noord are maintained by the residents and thus ensured positive neighborly contact and events such as an annual pear brunch.
Anyway, it was just beautiful the lawn of vv Gasselternijveen where the princess stepped out of the helicopter with hefty stiletto heels. “Such needles”, chairman Piet Wolters laughs, now that he thinks back on it. He makes a gesture with two fingers, which can easily fit a protractor. “At the same time as the helicopter, a driver had also driven all the way this way. Máxima got out in the grass and then allowed herself to be taxied to the Hoofdstraat.”
The visit provided the football club with beautiful photos in the boardroom and canteen and a refurbished driveway towards the canteen. Wolters: “We had been nagging the municipality about this for years, but now suddenly it was fixed a day before Máxima’s arrival.”
9. Walking football
Youth is the future, is the mantra of the club. That is why vv Gasselternijveen – following the Rolder Boys – built a youth stadium in 2012: the Hunzeborg.
But the elderly are not forgotten either. The club has been organizing for several years walking football under the team name ‘Old Stars GNV’. Chairman Wolters also participates in this. “For old men,” says the 70-year-old with a wink. “On Wednesday morning we drink a nice cup of coffee and talk about conditions in the village and the world. And every now and then we play a match, for example against Gieterveen.”
10. Healthiest canteen in the Netherlands
In 2015, Gasselternijveen had the healthiest canteen in the country. The award ceremony was shown in the television program Voetbal International (the predecessor of Today Inside). The club had its own vegetable gardens, smoothies on the bar and handed out fruit during half-time. The amount of money of 15,000 euros could be used for renovation of the canteen. “We had a fanatical group that was very committed to this,” says Wolters.
But what about that health now? “To be honest, the effect has diminished. When the first team plays football at home, the frikadellen and meatballs fly around your ears as usual. But some elements have remained: we still offer healthy products in the canteen and hand out fruit during all competitions.”
This story uses the jubilee book ‘3, 2, 1 Hup Nieveen’ that was published when the club celebrated its 90th anniversary.