Dutch pick up U21 gauntlet

Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) president Mathieu 'Jeu' Sprengers is looking forward to building on the success of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Portugal when the Netherlands host the competition next summer.

'Higher profile'
The tournament is being moved to pull it out from the shadow of the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship and Sprengers is confident the Dutch have everything in place to raise its profile. "I'm convinced about that," he told uefa.com. "We have the task to prove we can reach the target UEFA are aiming at, to give the tournament a higher profile."

'Excellent job'
Sprengers was in Portugal to watch the Jong Orange, who beat Ukraine 3-0 to win Sunday's final, and was impressed by the Portuguese Football Federation's handling of the event. "It's always interesting to experience the tournament just before the one you're in the driving seat for," he said. "I was there to visit my team but I have to compliment the Portuguese FA. In just six months they have done a magnificent job."

'Optimistic'
The Dutch have an extra year to prepare, having been selected as hosts before qualifying for the tournament has even begun. Traditionally, as was the case with Portugal, the hosts are picked from amongst the nations that have qualified. The extra time will allow the KNVB, who will hold the draw for the final tournament in Arnhem on 22 November, to fine tune an already well-oiled machine. "We are quite optimistic," Sprengers said. "We have the experience of last year when we organised the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The staff from that tournament are still available and we will [use that template] more or less. It was a successful tournament.

'Excellent stadiums'
"We had attendances of about 75 per cent capacity last year," he added. "We'll [get good attendances] in the same way - mainly inviting schoolchildren. We have four excellent stadiums in Heerenveen, Groningen, Arnhem and Nijmegen. They are close to each other so that means a minimum of travelling, cost and problems." The emphasis on youth is central to the KNVB's ethos. Giving children the chance to attend games brings atmosphere to the stadiums, and helps the Dutch cause well into the future as well.

'Masterplan'
"We have a masterplan that we introduced three years ago to promote youth tournaments," Sprengers said. "The number of members of our association is increasing rapidly, 30,000 or 40,000 a year. In the last five years the number has climbed from one million to 1.1 million. Football is by far the most popular sport and we want to stay ahead. It is mainly youngsters who are coming in and this is a positive result of the tournament last year and this one to come."

Positive signs
No matter how well organised, the host nation must do well for a tournament to truly capture the local imagination. Following the success of Foppe de Haan's side in Portugal, Sprengers has every reason to believe the Dutch are in safe hands. "An excellent tournament from your own national team is one of the biggest stimuli," he said. "The tournament next year is also the qualifying tournament for the Olympics which I'm sure will further increase interest. We didn't do badly in the Toulon youth tournament and now in Portugal. We want to recruit our side from those two teams which, let's be a bit modest, means we should have an above-average team to play in our country next year." It seems the Dutch already have everything in place to achieve success both on and off pitch.