Wittenborg Students on Excursion to FC Zwolle

The following report was written by Wittenborg Business School 1st Phase International Business Administration student Grace Wakesho Wamada:

The excursion took place on the 8^th of June. It was organized for Phase 1 Wittenborg Business School students (around 20 students attended). We arrived there at 10.30am and were welcomed with a cup of coffee/tea. A presentation was given by Bert Konterman who is the technical manager of the professional football club FC Zwolle. Bert started by telling us about his career as a soccer player of FC Zwolle. He is 40 years of age and a former professional football player from the Netherlands. He retired in June 2004.

Konterman's career began at the local amateur club SC Rouveen, after which he played for clubs in the Dutch Eredivisie (Premier League) including FC Zwolle, Cambuur, Willem II and Feyenoord, until he was snapped up by Dick Advocaat in 2000 to play for Rangers FC for a fee of £4.5m. Konterman was part of a growing Dutch influence at Ibrox under then-manager Dick Advocaat. After a 3 year stay at Rangers and having been part of the Dutch national team, Konterman returned home in the summer of 2003 to sign for Vitesse (Arnhem). He is currently employed full-time at FC Zwolle as Technical Manager.

While showing the organization chart, Bert explained how FC Zwolle as an organization is able to stay healthy financially. Their sponsors such as Achmea and Rabobank are the main source of income. Commercial Manager Erben Wennemars, a former ice-skating champion is responsible for recruiting the sponsors.

The major sponsors are members of the luxury business club of FC Zwolle. They hold special seats at reserved places and they can drink anything they like free of charge. The club also sells seats to smaller business sponsors. They have their own bar and they have to pay for their drinks. FC Zwolle has to run its operations with a budget of 3.8 million Euro. Around 60% of the costs are represented by the staff. About one third of the players in the first division earn less than €25,000. FC Zwolle takes comparatively good care of its players.

FC Zwolle United is the part of the Foundation responsible for receiving subsidies and organizing social soccer projects, for example for teenagers who find it sometimes difficult to adapt to society. Scouting is a skill on its own. FC Zwolle is allowed to scout everywhere. While they run several training projects at different clubs in the area they scout as well. The young FC Zwolle is the reserve team of FC Zwolle. The youth system is known for having produced some Dutch internationals like Jaap Stam (Manchester United), Bert Konterman (Glasgow Rangers) and Henk Timmer (Feyenoord).