As you all know, my FML club Fortuna Aeternitas is named after real-life club Fortuna Sittard, which happened/happens to be my favourite side. Shit-kickers for life, we were/are threatened by financial difficulties and a reluctant FA. Yesterday, this message came through.
Football club Fortuna Sittard is losing its professional licence as of 30 June. This effectively bars the Limburg club from playing in competition matches next season. No appeal is possible against the decision by the Royal Dutch Football Association, KNVB, although Fortuna can ask to have the procedure reviewed by a judge.
Fortuna has been in financial difficulties for a long time, which did not improve after a failed merger with regional rivals Roda JC. Attempts to save Fortuna as an independent club all came to nothing.
The club had incurred debts of up to 5.3 million euros. A support foundation called Proud of Fortuna managed to eliminate a large part of that, leaving a debt of 0.7 million. In order to cover that last amount, the club was hoping to play a benefit match against Bayern Munich, on the initiative of former Fortuna player Mark van Bommel. However KNVB appears unwilling to grant Fortuna a reprieve.
I'm gutted. Devastated. When given the chance, I will re-name my club Fortuna Sittard Aeternitas, so the legend of the mighty yellow-greens may live on forever. Expect no FML related post by me today. I'm just not in the mood.
Showing posts with label fortuna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fortuna. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Expectations, Analysis & Prognosis
Phew, a tough one this... In the past few seasons, I've always been struggling to attain a mid-table position in the XEFA Premiership. Last season started out well, but an injury to my main striker Dieumerci Mbokani pretty much ruined my league run. The poor bastard broke his leg and was out for 10 days, which pretty much left my team firing blanks upfront.
Looking at my position in the World Rankings, I should end top 10 this season. I feel I have signed a few decent new players and the newly recovered Mbokani has found his shooting boots again, scoring over 40 goals in the past two days. I've brought in quite a few players actually. Various new defenders, midfielders and forwards have come to Fortuna Aeternitas. I'm a bit of a merchant really...
With Uruguayan Robert Flores, Canadian Issey Nakajima-Farran and Irishman Pat McCourt (on loan) I now have the wingers to play a proper wide 4-3-3. These guys have been tearing it up during pre-season, wreaking havoc on many a defence. McCourt has impressed me enough to make a bid considerably above his Market Value, as I hope to make him a permanent part of my squad.
I also had to replace both wingbacks. Sturdy and reliable German Sascha Dum departed for Muzzy's FC Blitzkrieg for a friend's fee and Colombian wingback Rodrigo Sevillano was taken from me in a wage auction. I brought in two new faces to replace them, American Ricardo Clark came in for the RB position and Brazilian Tiago Carleto came in to replace Dum as LB. Both are more of a liability defensively, but they're stronger going forward. Since the best defence is proper offence, I feel this will work out.
At the back, Tom Mandzyuk and Sergio Diaz are forming the new central couple in the heart of my defence. Both are tall, strong and fast and they should be able to do well against most strikers. This means that last seasons duo has been broken up. Serge Wawa has moved on to a position as defensive midfielder, whereas Sandy Paillot is now benched.
In the point of the attack, I now have two decent backups for Mbokani running around. Swedish starlet Ola Toivonen came in near the end of the season and proved himself a worthy replacement of Mbokani in the few remaining official games and the post-season games, bagging an average of 0.8 goals a game before sustaining a serious injury himself, right at the point when Mbokani had recovered.
My second back-up is Iranian powerhouse striker Jalal Rafkhaei, who was brought in as an enforcer. The guy isn't that good, but he's tall and strong and his raw aggression is useful when you're trying to break down a defence in the last fifteen minutes. He's also capable of scoring goals, especially headers.
My expectations and prognosis are pretty much the same I guess. A top 10 spot in the league and with some luck of the draw we could stunt in the XEFA Cup... That will be the main aims of our senior campaign for season 5.
Looking at my position in the World Rankings, I should end top 10 this season. I feel I have signed a few decent new players and the newly recovered Mbokani has found his shooting boots again, scoring over 40 goals in the past two days. I've brought in quite a few players actually. Various new defenders, midfielders and forwards have come to Fortuna Aeternitas. I'm a bit of a merchant really...
With Uruguayan Robert Flores, Canadian Issey Nakajima-Farran and Irishman Pat McCourt (on loan) I now have the wingers to play a proper wide 4-3-3. These guys have been tearing it up during pre-season, wreaking havoc on many a defence. McCourt has impressed me enough to make a bid considerably above his Market Value, as I hope to make him a permanent part of my squad.
I also had to replace both wingbacks. Sturdy and reliable German Sascha Dum departed for Muzzy's FC Blitzkrieg for a friend's fee and Colombian wingback Rodrigo Sevillano was taken from me in a wage auction. I brought in two new faces to replace them, American Ricardo Clark came in for the RB position and Brazilian Tiago Carleto came in to replace Dum as LB. Both are more of a liability defensively, but they're stronger going forward. Since the best defence is proper offence, I feel this will work out.
At the back, Tom Mandzyuk and Sergio Diaz are forming the new central couple in the heart of my defence. Both are tall, strong and fast and they should be able to do well against most strikers. This means that last seasons duo has been broken up. Serge Wawa has moved on to a position as defensive midfielder, whereas Sandy Paillot is now benched.
In the point of the attack, I now have two decent backups for Mbokani running around. Swedish starlet Ola Toivonen came in near the end of the season and proved himself a worthy replacement of Mbokani in the few remaining official games and the post-season games, bagging an average of 0.8 goals a game before sustaining a serious injury himself, right at the point when Mbokani had recovered.
My second back-up is Iranian powerhouse striker Jalal Rafkhaei, who was brought in as an enforcer. The guy isn't that good, but he's tall and strong and his raw aggression is useful when you're trying to break down a defence in the last fifteen minutes. He's also capable of scoring goals, especially headers.
My expectations and prognosis are pretty much the same I guess. A top 10 spot in the league and with some luck of the draw we could stunt in the XEFA Cup... That will be the main aims of our senior campaign for season 5.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Naming My Club
Despite starting the fifth season soon, I figured I wanted the opportunity to explain why exactly I have chosen such a pretentious name. It originates from the club I am supporting in real life, Dutch minnows Fortuna Sittard. Who the hell indeed...
Fortuna Sittard is a football club based in Sittard, The Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 13,000 capacity Fortuna Stadion and features in the Dutch Jupiler League (First Division).
The club is the result of a merger between former clubs 'Fortuna 54' and 'Sittardia' to combine forces as the Fortuna Sittard Combinatie on July 1, 1968. 'Fortuna 54' was a relatively successful club which once won the KNVB Cup in the 1956/1957 season where they finished the Eredivisie season 2nd place behind champions Ajax Amsterdam whereas the 'Sittardia' battled against relegation for many seasons. Another KNVB Cup triumph was also celebrated by 'Fortuna 54' in 1964 before the merging of the two clubs in 1968 due to financial difficulties.
The club experienced mixed fortunes throughout its history although they were a regular fixture in the Eredivisie in the 1990s, with many talented players such as Kevin Hofland, Mark van Bommel and Fernando Ricksen emerging from its youth system. These players later joined PSV Eindhoven and Rangers as well as featuring for the Dutch national team.
The team's management also had an eye for talent, as they snapped up Wilfred Bouma and Patrick Paauwe from the youth setup of PSV. Both players developed well under manager Bert van Marwijk, before breaking into the Dutch national side and moving towards bigger clubs.
At the end of the 1999-2000 season, successful manager Bert van Marwijk left to join Feyenoord and the team seemed to collapse. Due to poor management, the team signed a number of over-paid and under-performing "stars". Fortuna relegated to the First Division in the 2000-2001 season, where things were getting from bad to worse very quickly.
Financial irregularities had been discovered and the team has been facing bankruptcy for the past 4 seasons. A little highlight came in the winter of 2003, when two of the clubs fans won the Dutch lottery and donated all of the prize money to the club. The team still hasn't been performing on the pitch and finished dead-last in the Dutch First Division for three consecutive seasons.
In the 2005-2006 season, the club managed to set a new record in Dutch professional football, going a staggering 28 league games without a win. The club also set a new record by finishing last for the third time in a row.
Despite things improving from that moment on, the Dutch FA or KNVB has decided it's now time to terminate Fortuna Sittard and maybe one or two other clubs in the region...
In the business world, mergers are a fact of life and a straightforward way to gain size and market share. In football, we are rather more sentimental and the idea of clubs merging with neighbours who are (usually) bitter rivals is enough to send most fans into apoplexy.
Less so in the Netherlands, where, since 1958, there have been no fewer than 13 mergers among professional clubs. But the biggest could be yet to come. If the FC Limburg project goes ahead, Roda Kerkrade (a product of the merger of four clubs) in the country’s top division could combine forces with any or all of the following three: VVV Venlo, MVV Maastricht, and Fortuna Sittard from the second tier.
The four clubs boast a combined attendance of 29,600, which would make them the fourth-best supported club in the Netherlands. And while a merger would mean losing some die-hard fans, proponents of the FC Limburg plan (named after the area of the country that is home to the clubs) believe that it would be more than offset by the possibility of a bigger, more successful club attracting new supporters.
I suppose most of you have never heard of Limburg and couldn't care less, but I happen to live here and I happen to support Fortuna Sittard, so this is something I deeply care about. Please allow me to elaborate.
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve Dutch provinces. It has a highly distinct character. The social and economic trends which affected the province in recent decades generated a process of change and renewal which has enabled Limburg to transform the drawbacks of its national peripheral location into advantages inherent in its European settings, linking the Netherlands to the southern part of Europe.
A consequence of this "international gateway" location is, for the last few decades international crime, often drugs-related is on the rise, especially in the southernmost part of this province.
This small province houses four professional football clubs, none of which have ever really had substantial and lasting success. In order to create a club that would be capable of challenging the traditional top-sides, a merger between all four was proposed.
Watching games of my own club, Fortuna Sittard, is a form of sadomasochism these days. The phantasms of a glorious past haunt the club and supporters. Occasionally we see flashes of pride and quality, more often we see a rage against the dying of the light. Deep down, everyone knows the glorious days of the past will never be brought back.
The players try to compensate by playing a physical and aggressive style of football, but they simply lack the quality. It's an act of desperation, a cry that shouts "we're still here, we're still fighting, we will not be forgotten."
The latter is exactly what will happen though, as bankruptcy threatens the very existence of the club once again. The players know this and they are desperate. All of them have to live up to high expectations, brought forth by a (fairly) glorious past.
They all suffer because of the burden of history, as the descendants of giants who were once the hub of the Dutch professional league. Fortuna '54 was one of the top-sides in Dutch professional football early on, but the team lost the momentum and was overtaken by pretty much all other Dutch sides.
Instead of looking back at a glorious past, other clubs—buoyed by wealth, have given it some extra effort, they dared to take a chance and they have left Fortuna and the other Limburgian sides in the rear-view mirror.
Recent attempts at a merger have failed, but I am afraid they will be successful sooner or later and my club will cease to exist. In tribute of the braves in yellow and green, I have dubbed my club Fortuna Aeternitas. Fortuna forever...
Fortuna Sittard is a football club based in Sittard, The Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 13,000 capacity Fortuna Stadion and features in the Dutch Jupiler League (First Division).
The club is the result of a merger between former clubs 'Fortuna 54' and 'Sittardia' to combine forces as the Fortuna Sittard Combinatie on July 1, 1968. 'Fortuna 54' was a relatively successful club which once won the KNVB Cup in the 1956/1957 season where they finished the Eredivisie season 2nd place behind champions Ajax Amsterdam whereas the 'Sittardia' battled against relegation for many seasons. Another KNVB Cup triumph was also celebrated by 'Fortuna 54' in 1964 before the merging of the two clubs in 1968 due to financial difficulties.
The club experienced mixed fortunes throughout its history although they were a regular fixture in the Eredivisie in the 1990s, with many talented players such as Kevin Hofland, Mark van Bommel and Fernando Ricksen emerging from its youth system. These players later joined PSV Eindhoven and Rangers as well as featuring for the Dutch national team.
The team's management also had an eye for talent, as they snapped up Wilfred Bouma and Patrick Paauwe from the youth setup of PSV. Both players developed well under manager Bert van Marwijk, before breaking into the Dutch national side and moving towards bigger clubs.
At the end of the 1999-2000 season, successful manager Bert van Marwijk left to join Feyenoord and the team seemed to collapse. Due to poor management, the team signed a number of over-paid and under-performing "stars". Fortuna relegated to the First Division in the 2000-2001 season, where things were getting from bad to worse very quickly.
Financial irregularities had been discovered and the team has been facing bankruptcy for the past 4 seasons. A little highlight came in the winter of 2003, when two of the clubs fans won the Dutch lottery and donated all of the prize money to the club. The team still hasn't been performing on the pitch and finished dead-last in the Dutch First Division for three consecutive seasons.
In the 2005-2006 season, the club managed to set a new record in Dutch professional football, going a staggering 28 league games without a win. The club also set a new record by finishing last for the third time in a row.
Despite things improving from that moment on, the Dutch FA or KNVB has decided it's now time to terminate Fortuna Sittard and maybe one or two other clubs in the region...
In the business world, mergers are a fact of life and a straightforward way to gain size and market share. In football, we are rather more sentimental and the idea of clubs merging with neighbours who are (usually) bitter rivals is enough to send most fans into apoplexy.
Less so in the Netherlands, where, since 1958, there have been no fewer than 13 mergers among professional clubs. But the biggest could be yet to come. If the FC Limburg project goes ahead, Roda Kerkrade (a product of the merger of four clubs) in the country’s top division could combine forces with any or all of the following three: VVV Venlo, MVV Maastricht, and Fortuna Sittard from the second tier.
The four clubs boast a combined attendance of 29,600, which would make them the fourth-best supported club in the Netherlands. And while a merger would mean losing some die-hard fans, proponents of the FC Limburg plan (named after the area of the country that is home to the clubs) believe that it would be more than offset by the possibility of a bigger, more successful club attracting new supporters.
I suppose most of you have never heard of Limburg and couldn't care less, but I happen to live here and I happen to support Fortuna Sittard, so this is something I deeply care about. Please allow me to elaborate.
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve Dutch provinces. It has a highly distinct character. The social and economic trends which affected the province in recent decades generated a process of change and renewal which has enabled Limburg to transform the drawbacks of its national peripheral location into advantages inherent in its European settings, linking the Netherlands to the southern part of Europe.
A consequence of this "international gateway" location is, for the last few decades international crime, often drugs-related is on the rise, especially in the southernmost part of this province.
This small province houses four professional football clubs, none of which have ever really had substantial and lasting success. In order to create a club that would be capable of challenging the traditional top-sides, a merger between all four was proposed.
Watching games of my own club, Fortuna Sittard, is a form of sadomasochism these days. The phantasms of a glorious past haunt the club and supporters. Occasionally we see flashes of pride and quality, more often we see a rage against the dying of the light. Deep down, everyone knows the glorious days of the past will never be brought back.
The players try to compensate by playing a physical and aggressive style of football, but they simply lack the quality. It's an act of desperation, a cry that shouts "we're still here, we're still fighting, we will not be forgotten."
The latter is exactly what will happen though, as bankruptcy threatens the very existence of the club once again. The players know this and they are desperate. All of them have to live up to high expectations, brought forth by a (fairly) glorious past.
They all suffer because of the burden of history, as the descendants of giants who were once the hub of the Dutch professional league. Fortuna '54 was one of the top-sides in Dutch professional football early on, but the team lost the momentum and was overtaken by pretty much all other Dutch sides.
Instead of looking back at a glorious past, other clubs—buoyed by wealth, have given it some extra effort, they dared to take a chance and they have left Fortuna and the other Limburgian sides in the rear-view mirror.
Recent attempts at a merger have failed, but I am afraid they will be successful sooner or later and my club will cease to exist. In tribute of the braves in yellow and green, I have dubbed my club Fortuna Aeternitas. Fortuna forever...
Audentes Fortuna Juvat
As you may or may not have noticed, the club crest boasts a Latin credo, "Audentes Fortuna Juvat." This phrase originated from Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid. It means that Fortuna, the Goddess of luck, is more likely to help those that take risks, take action, and develop their skills proactively.
In Roman mythology, Fortuna goddess of fortune, was the personification of luck; hopefully she brought good luck, but she could be represented veiled and blind, as modern depictions of Justice are seen, and came to represent the capriciousness of life. All in all, people that actively tried to better their situations by taking risks had a better chance of being lucky than people who just stood by and did nothing.
The Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla for example was said to believe in the influence of the goddess Fortune in his life. He was a consummate risk-taker, achieving martial distinction by taking risks on the battlefield such as wearing disguises and living among the enemy. He was also the first of the great Republican Romans to march upon Rome- a great taboo, but one which cemented his power and influence.
Julius Caesar also transformed his fortunes when he marched on Rome, with the famous words alea jacta est (the die is cast) as he crossed the Rubicon river. The utterance was a commitment of his fate to Fortune. While Caesar was a thorough and professional soldier, many of his greatest victories were achieved by taking bold risks which often exposed him and his troops to great danger, but often resulted in memorable victories. Obviously, his last gamble, attending the Senate on the Ides of March without his lictors (bodyguards) exposed him to successful assassination.
I'm a manager who controls his team in such a style. I intend to aim for the highest and I want to take chances to try and get there. This is also reflected in the team's style, as I'm employing a proper 4-3-3 formation. Not an attacking 4-5-1, but a proper 4-3-3 with three central forwards. As I said earlier, the Goddess of luck, is more likely to help those that take risks, take action, and develop their skills proactively...
In Roman mythology, Fortuna goddess of fortune, was the personification of luck; hopefully she brought good luck, but she could be represented veiled and blind, as modern depictions of Justice are seen, and came to represent the capriciousness of life. All in all, people that actively tried to better their situations by taking risks had a better chance of being lucky than people who just stood by and did nothing.
The Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla for example was said to believe in the influence of the goddess Fortune in his life. He was a consummate risk-taker, achieving martial distinction by taking risks on the battlefield such as wearing disguises and living among the enemy. He was also the first of the great Republican Romans to march upon Rome- a great taboo, but one which cemented his power and influence.
Julius Caesar also transformed his fortunes when he marched on Rome, with the famous words alea jacta est (the die is cast) as he crossed the Rubicon river. The utterance was a commitment of his fate to Fortune. While Caesar was a thorough and professional soldier, many of his greatest victories were achieved by taking bold risks which often exposed him and his troops to great danger, but often resulted in memorable victories. Obviously, his last gamble, attending the Senate on the Ides of March without his lictors (bodyguards) exposed him to successful assassination.
I'm a manager who controls his team in such a style. I intend to aim for the highest and I want to take chances to try and get there. This is also reflected in the team's style, as I'm employing a proper 4-3-3 formation. Not an attacking 4-5-1, but a proper 4-3-3 with three central forwards. As I said earlier, the Goddess of luck, is more likely to help those that take risks, take action, and develop their skills proactively...
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