KNVB – History of Sorts

We are less than a month away from the Fifa Worldcup. The selection of Qatar as the host nation is, to use an understatement, controversial. But I hope it will do some good.

I was wondering though about the history of Dutch football and especially the World War II years, the national competition didn’t halt. Would that have been seen as controversial at the time?

The Second World War was not the death blow for it Dutch football. The numbers show just the opposite: as the occupation continued, both the active and passive interest in sports in general and especially football grew
For example, the number of members of the NVB (The name of the Dutch football association is KNVB-K standing for Koninklijke as in Royal. the occupying forces forbade the royal honorific) clearly saw the growth during the war years.

Below are just some impressions of Dutch football between 1940 and 1945.

The Heracles team won a 6-1 victory against PSV and thus conquered the championship of the Netherlands. Netherlands, Almelo, July 1941 .

Competition match, season 1941-1942, ADO-Feyenoord (result 3-0), The Hague, Netherlands 1942. Photo: ADO goalkeeper Willem Koek, the arbitral trio, and Feyenoord captain Bas Paauwe during the pre-match toss.

First-class division 2, 1940/1941 season, Ajax – Blauw Wit (result 2-1). A game moment in front of Ajax’s goal, the goalkeeper [Gerrit Keizer] punches the ball away. Stadium de Meer Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 23, 1941.

Competition match season 1941-1942, ADO-DWS (result 1-0), The Hague, Netherlands 1941-1942. Photo: ADO goalkeeper Willem Koek punches the ball next to the goal.