A surprising twist in a story that seemed to end so sadly last May: vv Emmen then pulled the plug on the standard team. But the cable is now being reconnected.
It seemed a sad end for the illustrious club, which is of course the parent club of FC Emmen, which beautifully became overall champion of the Sunday amateurs in 1975 and which would celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025.
Could be, because in May four board members, including chairman Peter Bouws, resigned. Reason: a lack of volunteers, which meant that the same people were always burdened with too many tasks, according to Bouws.
Yet the club itself decided to continue to exist. Not only for the youth teams of the vv, who play together under the name FC Meerdijk with youth from neighboring club SC Angelslo, but also for the one Saturday team that remained, a team of friends.
‘The boys don’t have to miss work or a night out’
The best players from that team will now form the basis for a new first team, which will play in the fifth division on Saturday from next season. Saturday? “Yes,” says Krans, who has been involved in the first team as team leader in recent years and is in charge together with current board member Jan Gerfen.
“We see the potential of Saturday football. We’re going to play at 5 p.m.: a great time for the boys. They don’t have to cancel work, a birthday party or a night out, they are back home at 8 p.m. if necessary.”
Geert van der Tuuk becomes head coach
The technical staff is already there, says Krans: Geert van der Tuuk, recently interim coach at second division club Musselkanaal, is the intended head coach. “And we also have two assistant coaches, a linesman and a clothing manager, as we will call the equipment man, haha.”
VV Emmen is diligently looking for good players, says Krans, who was a speaker at Achilles 1894 for thirty years and also served as team leader for the Assen team for a long time. “But transport to Assen became somewhat problematic at a certain point,” says Krans. “And then vv Emmen asked if I wanted to come, about five years ago. I played here as a footballer so I thought: why not?”
‘Many enthusiastic responses’
For the time being, it is a three-year plan, says Krans, which still needs approval from the club’s members. How many exactly are there? Krans doesn’t know. The decisive membership meeting will be held in the spring, but it is not yet clear when. “I estimate that the members will agree to this plan,” says the 68-year-old, who lives just across the border in Hebelmeer, Germany. “We are receiving a lot of enthusiastic responses to our plan.”
Krans and Gerfen also want a three-year commitment from the players. “That is really a fairly strict requirement,” says Krans. “Because we saw how it went last season: then suddenly eight players left for Drenthina and WKE’16 and we had no team left. That won’t happen to us now.”
No volunteer problem
And that volunteer problem, a reason for the previous board to resign? “We don’t have that,” says Krans. “We recently received compliments from another youth team that we had no fewer than four people behind the bar. So I think it will work out.”
Krans does not expect any major bumps financially either. “We obviously don’t need a bus for away games in the fifth division, we think it should all be possible with a limited budget.”
PhD in the anniversary year
Take it easy, is Krans’ motto, so the line won’t break. “Although we obviously don’t want to compete in the fifth division for the sake of it,” says Krans. “It would be very nice to be promoted to fourth in our anniversary year. We very much hope for that.”