May 29 – Frank Pauw has been elected the new chairman of the Dutch FA (KNVB), succeeding Just Spee. If elected, Jaenet Van Der Laan would have become the first female boss of Dutch football.
Pauw clinched the presidency with 31 votes. Opponents Hans Nijland and Van Der Laan received 20 and seven votes respectively.
Pauw said he “was surprised by the intensity, the level of organisation and mobilisation” of fans after they considered him hostile to their interests. “I also said that to the supporters last week. That’s never fun, but you can complain about it for a long time. I think there is still a lot of work to be done to discuss this with each other.”
At the end of February, Pauw, a former police chief with a security role at Euro 2000 and responsible for football vandalism, became the KNVB’s preferred choice to take over from Spee.
Pauw had been scheduled to receive the greenlight at an extraordinary meeting of the KNVB a month later. But both Van Der Laan, a former international and D66 politician, and Nijland, a former director at Groningen, threw their hat into the ring in the months leading up to the election.
Pauw’s nomination prompted protests from fans and the extraordinary meeting was postponed. On Monday, however, Pauw won the vote with Spee retiring because of health concerns.
His victory also means that the Netherlands won’t have their first female president either. Van Der Laan had been an outsider but increasingly believed she had generated strong enough support to become the first woman to lead Dutch football.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1729224436labto1729224436ofdlr1729224436owedi1729224436sni@i1729224436tnuk.1729224436ardni1729224436mas1729224436