‘All lines of communication within the village’

Keje Molenaar has resigned as advisor to FC Volendam. The former player and lawyer is also pressing charges against supervisory board member Elma de Koekkoek for libel and slander.

FC Volendam’s director of training, Ruben Jongkind, expressed his support for Molenaar in Langs de Lijn en Omstreken: “He would be an excellent soccer administrator, so it would be a shame if he is no longer active at Volendam. But I can understand that he doesn’t feel like it when you are treated like that and held back.”

Molenaar is outraged because De Koekkoek has called him “not of integrity.” “Any substantiation of this particularly damaging statement you have omitted,” Molenaar writes in a letter accessed by De Telegraaf. “With this qualification you touch, among other things, the core of my profession as a lawyer which I have practiced for more than 33 years and you apparently knowingly violate my honor and good name as a person and lawyer.”

Molenaar was recently nominated by Volendam chairman and singer Jan Smit as vice chairman of the club. But the rvc did not approve the appointment of the former player of FC Volendam, Ajax, Feyenoord and the Dutch national team, among others.

Listen back here to the Langs de Lijn en Omstreken interview with Ruben Jongkind, director of training at FC Volendam:

De Koekkoek, a former civic councilor in Edam-Volendam on behalf of the VVD, confirms that she described Molenaar as having no integrity. Still, she is not impressed by the report. “I had to laugh at it and thought, ‘Jeetjemina, what a level,'” she told De Telegraaf.

“There can never be libel and slander if something is said in a meeting with confidentiality. Just look at the case law. Miller doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”

The supervisory board believes that “Team Jonk,” which includes trainer Wim Jonk and Jongkind, is taking too much risk financially. Jongkind: “Most premier league clubs have a financial deficit. Heerenveen, Utrecht, Vitesse. You compensate for that with transfer revenues.”

“We are trainers par excellence, we proved that with the transfer of Micky van de Ven to Wolfsburg. Now we need even less revenue to fill the gap. That will just work, because with the way we work through good training you create value on the field.”

There is more at play, according to Jongkind. There are too many people on the supervisory board who also seem to have their own interests: “Twelve people is too many, you’re never going to do top sport sustainably that way. They all have lines within the village, friends, family, colleagues. Some even prefer to stay in the first division.”

“Old energy that doesn’t want change. You have to dare to take a little risk, but that leads to tension. This is a power game, village and club run right through each other. You only need one supervisor on the supervisory board. Then you have the KNVB if things go wrong financially. The rvc should dissolve itself, but that is not going to happen. If the village would like to continue with the rvc, so be it.”

Last Saturday, FC Volendam coach Wim Jonk also addressed the managerial crisis at his club after the 2-0 win over Vitesse.

It has been bubbling for weeks at the club from the fishing village. Because of disagreement about the course to be followed, three board members resigned recently.

Head coach Jonk, chairman Smit and advisor Molenaar have been involved with the club since 2019. Last season, under their leadership, Volendam promoted to the highest level as number two of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie. Currently, the club ranks 14th in the premier league.

“Wim, Jan and I are the proverbial pearls before swine,” Molenaar believes. “For that reason I have put a stop to it and I will not be surprised if more follow soon. An awful shame about that wonderful club on The Embankment.”