Jorien van den Herik (born 11 November 1943 in
Sliedrecht
Sliedrecht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is covered by water.
Sliedrecht is known for the many large dredging companies (including Bosk ...
) is a Dutch businessman. He is most widely known as the former
chairman of Dutch football club
Feyenoord Rotterdam between 1992 and 2006.
Van den Herik helped Feyenoord to purchase some players in 1984 as chairman of the "Friends of Feyenoord Group". In a few years time he had invested 3 million
Dutch gulden
The guilder ( nl, gulden, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from the 15th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Dutch name ''gulden'' was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning "golden", and reflects the fact that, wh ...
s in the club. In 1989 he became president of the
Stadion Feyenoord NV. When Feyenoord almost was bankrupt due to their sponsor
HCS, Van den Herik claimed his position in the Feyenoord board by saying "If I lose my money, I would like to be there myself". In 1992, he became Feyenoord's chairman by taking over from .
In 1998 the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (
FIOD
The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incor ...
) visited Feyenoord because of suspected fraud. Mainly based on the signings of
Aurelio Vidmar
Aurelio Vidmar ( ; born 3 February 1967) is an Australian association football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Thai League 1 club Bangkok United.
He is a former captain of the Australia national team and former coach ...
,
Christian Gyan
Christian Atta Gyan (2 November 1978 – 29 December 2021) was a Ghanaian professional footballer who played as a defender. He was known primarily for his time at Feyenoord where he won the 1998–99 Eredivisie and the 2001–02 UEFA Cup.
Cl ...
and
Patrick Allotey. This became a continuous subject in the years to come with Van den Herik as the main suspect. After several visits in court Van den Herik and Feyenoord were found to be not guilty in 2002. The Attorney General however appealed, but in 2005, after three years of investigations the results stayed the same. They still did not give up and went into cassation. On 19 December 2006 Van den Herik and Feyenoord came out of court as the winners again and this time it was the final decision. Van den Herik has already said he will take the Attorney General to court to reclaim the damage his personality has received in all these years.
The 2005/06 season ended in disappointment for Feyenoord. The team was challenging the Dutch Championship for most of the season, but eventually lost it to
PSV Eindhoven
Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...
. The newly born Dutch play-offs (held for the first time that year) then became fatal for Feyenoord.
Ajax Amsterdam which ended on a fair distance in the regular league was Feyenoord's opponent in the play-offs and overclassed them and Feyenoord was eliminated for winning an
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
ticket. During the summer break Feyenoord had to sell two of their key players,
Salomon Kalou
Salomon Armand Magloire Kalou (born 5 August 1985) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a forward and winger for Djiboutian club Arta/Solar7.
He previously played for Feyenoord from 2003 to 2006 and Chelsea from 2006 to 2012. ...
and the very popular
Dirk Kuyt. Only a small amount of the money became available to invest in new players. When
Angelos Charisteas
Angelos Charisteas ( el, Άγγελος Χαριστέας, ; born 9 February 1980) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a forward. He works as sporting director for Aris Thessaloniki.
At club level he played for Aris Thessa ...
was signed from arch rivals Ajax to replace Dirk Kuyt hundreds of die-hard fans moved to the Feyenoord board to force Van den Herik to resign. Van den Herik stayed at the team and did not want to give up his position, unless the growing pressure, the underperforming of the team and several other problems that had not been solved yet. In the meanwhile Feyenoord was placed under special guardianship because of their financial problems. A group of some Feyenoord icons, with former chairman
Gerard Kerkum as their leader, operated under the name of "Commissie Kerkum" to restructure Feyenoord's future. In December 2006 they published their thoughts and came to the conclusion that Van den Herik should leave the club. Still Van den Herik did not want to leave, however after hooligan incidents in
Nancy and the growing pressure he announced his retirement in mid December. Van den Herik himself said not the thoughts of the Commissie Kerkum were the key factor for his decision, but the upcoming final result in the fraud case was. After the case was finished in December 2006 - Van den Herik was acquitted - he stepped down.
In the summer transfer window of 2007, Feyenoord surprised friend and foe with the signing of big names like Roy Makaay and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. According to player manager Rob Jansen, Van den Herik played an important role in the realization of the transfers.
Feyenoord's honours under Jorien van den Herik
*
Eredivisie Championships:
** 1993, 1999
*
KNVB Cups:
**1992, 1994, 1995
*
Supercup:
**1999
*
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
:
**2002
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herik, Jorien Van Den
1943 births
Living people
Dutch businesspeople
Dutch football chairmen and investors
Feyenoord non-playing staff
People from Sliedrecht