“Football is the essence, that’s where the priority should be”

Before Dennis te Kloese became Feyenoord’s new chief executive at the start of last year, the born Bussumer worked for years in Mexico and the United States. After being active in football across the pond for almost twenty years, he returned to the Netherlands. There, he quickly noticed the differences in organizational cultures.

“The biggest difference is that the organizations in these countries are more hierarchical,” he explains. Feyenoord magazine. “At LA Galaxy, we had one owner, Anschutz Entertainment Group. At the beginning of the year, the CEO came to me to explain the expectations and the budgets, and then I had the blessing to start. In the Netherlands, the polder model is more common. You have to seek support, involve people in the decisions. That’s good in itself, but I think a decision should also be made at other times.

At Feyenoord, Te Kloese had to deal with a complex organizational structure with all kinds of entities. The general manager spent a lot of energy trying to find his way around. “Slowly but surely it worked out well. First you have to know people personally, I spent a lot of time on that. For me, it is essential that the interest of the club is served. I try to communicate as well as possible, to be transparent and to bring clarity when necessary and possible.

Te Kloese previously said in the media that the interests of the club must come first. According to him, this means in particular that the focus must be on football. “I think it’s important to realize why we are here. Feyenoord is a football club, the priority is football. The football team must therefore receive as much support as possible. It’s a bit decisive, but if the first team works well and people feel involved with the players and the staff, then the rest of the club can participate. This is the first step to put a flywheel in motion, which has repercussions, for example, on the commercial service, the ticket office and the social branch. But the main thing is football, it should be the priority for everyone. So I consider it one of my main tasks to support football.