Israellycool

Australian soccer coach Guus Hiddink’s father, Gerhardus (Gerrit) Hiddink, stole food coupons during World War II in order to feed Jews who were hiding in his Dutch village of Varsseveld, according to Guus Hiddink’s brother Hans.

In a telephone interview from Varsseveld, Hans Hiddink also recounted his father’s efforts for the Dutch Resistance to save downed Allied pilots - for which he was cited by then US president Dwight D Eisenhower.

Hiddink senior would carry pilots downed in the Varsseveld area 40 kilometers to the south on his bicycle, where they were picked up by members of the Resistance and eventually spirited to safe havens in Spain. Hiddink senior’s assistance to the Jews was first mentioned in a Sydney Morning Herald profile titled “A beautiful mind”, published earlier this year.

 

Hans Hiddick told the AJN that his father, an unemployed teacher during the war, was appointed by the local authorities of Varsseveld - a township 150 kilometers east of Amsterdam - to manage the distribution of food coupons to the local population.

 

According to Hans, Gerrit Hiddink and his cousin would fake break-ins to the food-coupon offices and claim that coupons had been stolen. They would then use these coupons to feed several Jews who were in hiding in farmhouses in the area.

 

The son of one of the families fed by Hiddink, Joop Levi, is an Amsterdam Jew who comes on an annual pilgrimage to Hiddink senior - who will be marking his 90th birthday this year - to pay his respects for helping save his parents’ lives.

 

But while Hans seems to believe that all the Jews hiding in Varsseveld survived the war, records indicate that only a few families survived - with the help of the local population - while the rest suffered a fate similar to that of 107,000 Dutch Jews, 80 per cent of the prewar Jewish population, who were exterminated by the Nazis.

Remember the infamous “Hand of God” incident from the 1986 World Cup Final? Well, Maradona has, for the first time, admitted that he deliberately used his hand to punch the ball into the net. But don’t fret. He had his reasons.

“I said to my team-mates to come and embrace me and celebrate the goal. They were a little hesistant. They came over to embrace me but it was as if they were saying: ‘We’ve robbed them’,” he said.

But Maradona, the Argentinian captain at the time, said he assured his team-mates that “whoever robs a thief gets a 100-year pardon.”

He was referring to British control of the Falkland Islands which lie just off Argentina and were scene of a bitter war in 1982 when the South Americans fought unsuccessfully to regain sovereignty of the islands they claimed as their own.

While I think his actions were disgraceful and unsportsmanlike, at least he did not blow himself up, as well as all the English players on the field.

While the French and Israeli national soccer teams gear up for Wednesday night’s World Cup qualifying match at Ramat Gan’s National Stadium, hundreds of French Jewish fans are torn over which side to support.

 

Some 1,000 French Jews arrived earlier this week on a solidarity visit, and purchased more than 300 tickets for the game, but pangs of dual loyalty still torment the group.

 

“There are a lot of French Jews who love Israel and want Israel to win,” said Dr. Joel Mergui, an organizer traveling with the group, “although I think that the majority will end up rooting for France.”

The threat to disrupt the national anthem brought back bad memories of a soccer game in the winter of 2001 at the beautiful Parc des Princes stadium in Paris. Pundits believed that game, the first time a French team went up against an Algerian team, played an important role in triggering Islamic extremism in France. Millions of French television viewers could not believe their eyes when their fellow citizens of the Muslim faith began booing when their adopted country’s anthem was played. The booing returned when the French scored a goal.

“I think it is mixed, whom the people will root for,” said Alain Calmat, the former French minister of youth and sport. “I hope that the French will be supported… I’m French, so I very much hope that France will win.”

Hermant is afraid history is repeating itself. “I must say I am terribly surprised at the politics that have been created around the game,” he said. “In France, we wrote about the game in terms of sport. Here, it’s something else. It’s very strange that since we landed in Israel, people at the airport and the hotel have welcomed us very nicely. Even Barthez.

“Apparently something happened to him in front of the cameras,” Hermant said. “Maybe he lost his head.”

‘Fabien the Brave’ lands in Israel

 

Fabien Barthez plucked up his courage and arrived here together with the rest of the French squad ahead of Wednesday s World Cup qualifier with Israel. Barthez, who threatened not to make the trip to Israel due to fears for his personal security, landed at Ben Gurion Airport before being whisked to the team’s Tel Aviv hotel.

In a bid to avoid the local media, the French squad was taken through a side door. Though photographers managed to catch a glimpse of the former European and world champions, journalists were left guessing as to the meaning of a four-finger signal by some of the French players.*

Stange, who charmed the WA public during his time as Perth Glory coach from 1999 to 2001, threw his hat into the ring for a coaching position in the new Hyundai A-League, telling The West Australian yesterday: “I am available.”

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Stange said his family had loved their time in Perth and he would be willing to return to Australia.

 

“I would be interested - definitely,” he said from his home town of Jena, in Germany yesterday. “My family was very happy there. I know Australian soccer. I think I have the experience to push a new club.”

 

But Stange, whose popularity famously forced Glory chairman Nick Tana into an embarrassing backdown over his contract in February 2000, is unlikely to be offered a place with his former club - though it is currently looking to appoint a high-profile, overseas coach.