Hey Youth Club Coaches, Coaching Directors, Parents and Boards........What do you think is the most important thing for a professional club in Holland? 

Not Uniforms, not sweats suits, not team flags, not pins, not Surf Cup caps, not back packs, not rankings, not attending Surf Cup, not winning state cups, not winning a       " national championship", not being named "elite" nor wearing Nike, Puma or Adidas. The most important concept at every club we have visited in Holland (and Belgium, England, Germany, Spain, and Mexico), over the past 15 years, is educating the players about soccer ........and developing them. 

Imagine if your club's success was measured by the number of players you placed in college, the MLS, or the National teams rather than the number of tournaments or state cups won.....?

Haarlem FC/2004

  In 2004 we visited Haarlem FC in Holland. Haarlem plays in the professional divisions in Holland. They are an up and down club - they move up and down between the first and second divisions. In Holland, there is promotion and relegation between the first and second division but a professional club cannot be relegated into amateur soccer. This is different in most other European countries were a club can drop from first to tenth if they lose each year.
  Haarlem is a unique club due to their relationship with Ajax Amsterdam. Ajax sent over one of their coaches to become the Haarlem Director of Coaching. They pay for him and they loan players to Haarlem in order to provide them with developmental opportunities and keep them in their organization. Without this cooperation players not signed by Ajax could be signed by other clubs. By cooperating with Haarlem they are able to keep some of the players from signing with other clubs and they are able to increase the number of players they are educating.
  An interesting point was the budget for the youth development program. Outside the salary which Ajax pays Edmund, their director, the total budget in 2004 was $70,000. The biggest cost was travel – buses – to away games. Coaches are paid very little in Holland and everyone wants a coaching job. It was amazing for us to think of an entire professional club’s budget, with some teams training up to 4 session’s a week, costing only $70,000.
   If a US based club has 10 teams at a tournament, on one weekend, they could almost spend the clubs entire budget – on food, gas and lodging – for one weekend. ( based on 16 players X $450 per family - hotel, gas, food, coaches expenses).   In any case the following were the notes taken by Gabe Ruud during our visit. During the visit we watched a professional game with their first team. We later visited the club, watched youth trainings of all ages and were given a presentation about the club by the youth director, Edmund Klaus. Edmund worked under Frans Hoek at Ajax, was later in charge of youth goalkeeping at Ajax before becoming Coaching Director of Ajax Capetown.

1)    Philosophy/Aim of Haarlem

•    Develop players for the first team
•    Don’t have much money, get maximum results on the field with not as many tools as other clubs

2)    Structure of Academy/Club/Budget

•    Edmond Klaus oversees 7 youth coaches - U12-U19 - no U18
•    $1.4 million budget for the entire club
•    $70,000 yearly for youth - one of the lowest in the country for youth (compare to Ajax-$3.5 million or AZ-$1.4 million)
•    Ajax - pays Edmond’s Salary

3)    Accommodations

•    1 stadium field (3,500 people)
•    2 grass fields (1 nice-1 bad condition) – with lights
•    1 artificial turf

4)    Structure of Staff – Director of Coaching, Goalkeeper Coach, Team Coaches


5)    Training Intensity

•    3 times a week/1.5 hours
•    Older teams train 4 times a week

6)    Day Schedule/Schools – they are trying to work with schools to get the players to come to the training ground earlier to be able to train more

7)    Scouting