NewFootball
October is History Month with the theme Really Fake. We look to see if any houseboats sank during the Dutch national team’s cruise through Amsterdam as the winner of the European Football Championship.
Honoring the Dutch national team. Photo Rob Croes via the National Archives
The very first episode of Andere Tijden Sport was in 2008 and was about the honoring of the Dutch national team after the 1988 European Championship. This made it clear that Amsterdam was one big chaos that day. There was no preparation whatsoever. “It happened to us,” said an Amsterdam spokesperson in the retrospective.
During the tour, houseboats along the route were climbed by supporters, leaving them dangerously submerged. Kees Jansma literally said in the report on Dutch TV: “We have passed another bridge and behind that bridge a huge cheer immediately breaks out from the thousands of people who have been waiting there for hours. I believe you now have a sinking houseboat in your image. We can write off this boat.”
In our memory, that is why those houseboats sank, but this was denied by Ine van Brenk, policy officer for the municipality of Amsterdam in 1988. Standing next to Ed van Thijn, mayor of Amsterdam in 1988, she told Andere Tijden Sport: “No houseboat has sunk. There is one houseboat to which we have paid compensation: 5,000 guilders.”
Indeed, the boats were lying dangerously deep in the water, but, as Van Brenk said: “There were never any images of those houseboats no longer being there.”
The frustration was no less, as was evident in, among other things Leeuwarder Courant of June 28, 1988. In it, some houseboat residents spoke about the ceremony. On the Prinsengracht, the roof covering of a boat almost collapsed. At the ship next door, the owner tried to prevent his boat from being stormed, but was hit.
The route over the canals was insane and seems to have been devised on the spot
Near disaster on Museumplein
Dramatic problems arose on Museumplein, where supporters threatened to be crushed against the fences. The pressure from incoming people became so great that a disaster threatened to occur.
Marco van Basten saw it happen before his eyes and immediately walked to Mayor Van Thijn: “You have to do something now!” But Van Thijn didn’t get much further than: “People, would you like to go to the back?” Nobody listened.
At that moment, Ruud Gullit grabbed the microphone and shouted: “So not for a while attackllluhhhh……, but to backuuuhhhh! Because otherwise we’ll leave!”
This time the audience listened and withdrew. A disaster was averted.
As Van Thijn said to Andere Tijden Sport in 2008: “Ruud Gullit saved the case.”
Really Fake
