PEC Zwolle - From Ashes To KNVB Cup Champions

Trace the history of surprise KVNB Cup Champions PEC Zwolle, and how they beat relegation, death and low expectations to stun mighty Ajax.

Once upon a time, (actually, almost 24 years ago), a small Dutch club from a city surrounded by four rivers was on the brink of dissolving into a relic of the past.

Saddled with debts that were proving too heavy to keep the club afloat, PEC Zwolle ’82 – as they were known then, epitomizing the Dutch propensity for out-of-the-ordinary names (read, Go Ahead Eagles from neighboring Deventer) – were going through the lowest point in the club’s history since its inception in 1910.

Having been a consistent presence in the Eerste Divisie (the Dutch 2nd tier) and missing out on promotion more often than not by small margins throughout their history, PEC had a good few years just as the balance in power was shifting away from the Netherlands and Ajax in Europe. In 1977, they reached the KNVB Cup finals and in the following season, won the Eerste Divisie to win promotion to the Eredivisie for the first time ever. A string of good results that coincided with an increased investment from the club in the transfer market to get players such as ‘Iron’ Rinus Israel and a decent youth crop, including current manager Ron Jans. However, the expenditure exceeded the income and the club owed over 6 million guilder to the Slavenburgs Bank.

A swift change in charge and a real estate developer, Martin Eibrink oversaw the amazing repayment of all the debt, an entire reshuffle of the club hierarchy and organization and even a complete renovation of theAi??Oosterenkstadion, PEC’s home. Everything was smooth sailing and they even managed to tap up ex-Ajax stars Johnny Rep and Piet Schrijvers. Ai??After oscillating back and forth, for yet another time, PEC won promotion in 1986.

But then cracks reappeared.

Eibrink claimed that the clubs’ sponsors and domestic authorities were not providing the club with sufficient support or a conducive environment for them to succeed. After announcing that the aforementioned parties did not ‘love’ the club enough, Eibrink – in a slightly ironic move – went on to leave the club in ’88, just as the Dutch were getting their revenge for ’74 against the Germans not too far away from Zwolle.

Over the next two year, debts from the Slavenburgs Bank debt would resurface again, surprisingly. Apparently, an entire chunk of it went completely unnoticed by the entire board for a decade and once Eibrink left, the structure of the club gave way. PEC were relegated back to their familiar Eerste Divisie again and that was the last straw. Sponsors retracted all their support and at this point, the tide of bankruptcy was raging against PEC – their chances of survival not helped by this mound of marsh on their backs.

This is a fairy tale but reality does taint even the most incredible of stories, and for all the Dutch expertise at resisting floods, PEC Zwolle ’82 was soon submerged under a tsunami of debt. But then, the story of the football club that went from being PEC to PEC Zwolle to PEC Zwolle ’82 does not end there. Its story is one of ellipsis… there is a beginning at the end.

80 years and 19 days after the first ever incarnation of the club was founded, the phoenix of PEC arose again – in the form of FC Zwolle. All the club’s links to its turbulent financial history were cut off and FC Zwolle was born as an entirely different, entirely new club.

The nascent years were difficult, but in typically Dutch fashion, a talented young crop of players, inclusive of one Jaap Stam, emerged at the club, just missing out on promotion, only 2 seasons after the re-birth of the club. After many attempts bearing no fruit, Zwolle finally got promoted as Eerste Divisie winners in 2002, but after only 2 seasons, dropped back, from the Eredivisie. The name may have changed and so may have the colors, but this oscillatory propensity of the club was proving one that was hard to shake off from its first era.

After numerous disappointing play-off results and string of failing to make the final leap to the Eredivisie, Zwolle won the Eerste Divisie in 2012 – 10 years after their last promotion – and immediately reverted their name back to PEC Zwolle and ergo, came back to the Eredivisie – perhaps with the most confidence in quite some time – as PEC Zwolle.

One season and an 11th place Eredivisie finish after that though, the club lost some key players and more importantly, PEC manager Art Langeler chose to leave his job for the greener pastures of being PSV’s Academy Director while assistant Jaap Stam left to be defensive trainer at Ajax and work alongside Frank de Boer. Were PEC destined to continue their pendulum-like motion between the divisions?

Then came the appointment of Ron Jans – the exuberant former Heerenveen manager and a player in the Blauwvingers’ team that reached the 1977 KNVB Cup final.

Jans followed Langeler’s model of quick, attacking football but also made sure key acquisitions were made to sustain PEC’s level; the likes of Guyon Fernandez, Ryan Thomas, Mateusz Klich and the man Daley Blind will probably never forget, for the way he bossed the midfield Ai??last Sunday – Kamohelo Mokotjo (an ex-Feyenoord player who has recently said he wouldn’t mind moving to Ajax if the opportunity arose)

PEC don’t have the most glamorous of squad and yet, have managed to beat Feyenoord, draw Twente, PSV and Ajax and sit 9th in the League table, just a position off their best ever finish in the league back in the 1920’s.

Sunday’s KNVB Cup final will be remembered for a lot of the wrong things – the hooliganism on the part of Ajax fans, the 25 minute long interruption which saw Edwin van der Sar come out on pitch with a mic and demand the Ajax ultras to ‘stop with this s***!‘. But it should be remembered for the demolition PEC handed Ajax, who seemed just a bit too confident of themselves, having beaten Feyenoord and AZ on road to the final – teams that would be considered tougher opposition. Jans took inspiration from how Vitesse pressured Ajax and how Salzburg capitalized on their shortcomings. The 5-1 scoreline may baffle outsiders who don’t follow football in the Netherlands all too often. Truth be said, it may even cause a few who do follow Dutch football to blink twice and rub their eyes in disbelief.

The defending champions, the team who had only conceded 25 goals in the Eredivisie the whole season, had conceded five vs the 9th placed team, who had scored the least number of goals among the top 9. It leaves Frank de Boer with a lot to ponder over, even when he has his 4th consecutive Eredivisie shield in his hands this coming weekend, a tiny part of his mind will pore over the footballing lesson his side got at de Kuip.

But for Ron Jans, it makes for the chance to participate in the Europa League next season, among some of the best in Europe. It signifies the revival of a club that sunk, was resuscitated and is now swimming among the Netherlands’ best teams, a club that has stayed true to its ideals despite all its misfortune in play-offs and relegation.

It will soon be 24 years since the resurrection of this football club from Zwolle. From floating away into the depths of oblivion, PEC have floated back ashore in quite some fashion and from a neutral perspective, hope springs eternal that PEC can continue their fairytale journey.

PEC Zwolle – From Ashes To KNVB Cup Champions

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