Dutch professional football players are becoming younger and younger. Clubs are increasingly looking to 19, 18 and even 17-year-olds from their own youth teams out of financial necessity. As a result, the chance of winning European club competitions is getting smaller.

Dutch clubs already had trouble holding on to their talent, as players are quickly snapped up by richer foreign clubs like Real Madrid and AC Milan. The future of Dutch football appears to lie in ‘training and selling’ players.

And hoping for a bit of success in the meantime. Take last Wednesday, when fans went absolutely wild in Amsterdam, because Ajax managed to qualify for the first round of the Champions League with a team full of young players. Mind you, it had been five years since the internationally renowned club had qualified for Europe’s most prestigious club football competition. And much earlier, in 1995, Ajax became the proud winner of the Champions League, copying its successes of the early 1970s when it was crowned Europe’s best club three times.

Times change
But times change: in the last 15 years football has become big business, and the Dutch Premier League is simply too small a money-making base for television rights and big investors. Dutch clubs are finding it more and more difficult to hold on to their talent. Players are being whisked away by foreign clubs at ever younger ages. Take Jeffrey Bruma, who left Feyenoord to join Chelsea at the tender age of 15 and is now a regular player in the first team.

The Dutch Association for Contract Players, the VVCS, which looks after the interests of professional footballers in the Netherlands, confirms that more and more youth players are making it into their team’s selection. Chairman Danny Hesp, former Ajax player:

“You see it happening in both the Premier League and the First Division. At Feyenoord in Rotterdam, a large number of youth players have been given the opportunity to play in the first team for some time. And at Vitesse in Arnhem, you can clearly see that younger players are getting the chance to play and it’s a good thing.”

Teenagers
At clubs like Feyenoord, which saw its chances of taking part in the Europa League dashed this week, the contrast with last season is huge. The team’s experienced but expensive 30-year-olds have been replaced by teenagers. The main reason according to Mr Hesp is the economic crisis.

“Club incomes are lower, television rights are not worth as much and there are no transfers any more. If you look at Ajax, the club used to sell a player for many millions every year, but it hasn’t sold any in recent years and then the club goes 20 million euros into the red.”

Danger zone
The financial malaise is widespread in professional football. According to the Dutch football association, the KNVB, there are six Premier League clubs in the danger zone, one of them being Feyenoord. They risk losing their licence if they don’t get their finances in order within three years.

“I think there is already a huge distance between top football and Dutch football. In fact, the gap is already too large to close when you see how much money is involved in the ‘big’ countries. The Netherlands already has difficulty getting into the Champions League. It will become more of a training country for the bigger countries in the coming period and that is something the Dutch clubs will have to get used to.”

Large money
After this month’s takeover of Vitesse by Georgian businessman and football agent Merab Jordania, big money also seems to have found its way into the Netherlands. Mr Jordania wants to invest millions in the club from Arnhem promising to make it national champion within three years.

He hasn’t mentioned anything about his European ambitions, but that goal may be undermined by an ulterior motive. Mr Jordania wants to use Vitesse as a training centre for players from eastern Europe and elsewhere, who he can eventually sell for big money.

Never again a Europa league champion?
The laws of professional football are clear and hard: the prizes go to the clubs with the most capital, because they can afford the best players. Will the Dutch ever win the Champions League again? Mr Hesp is not optimistic, but he does retain a little hope: “The chance is only getting smaller, but there will be the odd exception.”