Driessen lashes out at ECV: “A gross disgrace”

Valentijn Driessen is extremely critical of the Eredivisie CV. According to the football chief of The Telegraph the interest group missed the mark with a video celebrating sixth place in the UEFA coefficient ranking.

Journalist shakes his head watching video

The Netherlands rose to sixth position in the ranking this week. From the 2024-2025 season, two Dutch clubs can participate directly in the Champions League, where the number three can enter the preliminary rounds. The ECV celebrated this success with a video starring Khalid Boulahrouz. Driessen wipes the floor with it in his column.

“How stupid can you be as Eredivisie CV to sell all the European beauty of Dutch club football nationally and internationally in this way?” Driessen responds. “An expensive agency has undoubtedly been hired for this, while pumping up the Eredivisie can be done so simply and cheaply. See the videos on ESPN to warm up the viewer for Eredivisie duels.”

Eredivisie CV misses the point

Driessen calls it a ‘marketing blunder’. “You get this wrong image if you have football organizations represented by agencies with people who have no feeling for football in their DNA. And then within that ECV, which likes to be taken seriously and act mature, there is no one to raise a finger. It is easier to raise two billion from ESPN for the live rights of the Eredivisie 2025-2035 than to worry about the image of your great product.”

“That’s just football for these gentlemen. Then it is not the content, your strength, your pride, the football that is the benchmark, but the slickness of a video, ”says. “In this way, the Eredivisie CV rapes one of the Netherlands’ most beautiful export products. Cannibalism at its best. A great shame and at the same time Portugal as a football country is unnecessarily kicked in the back. While as a small football country in Europe it plays an exemplary role with structurally performing clubs in the Champions League and a positive transfer balance that pales in comparison to that of the Eredivisie.”