‘As bad as Wales. That’s not even a real country’: Dutch mag takes snarky swipe
A Dutch football magazine has taken an extraordinary swipe at the Wales football team in a snarky editorial.
Wales was in the line of fire from Voetbal International after the Netherlands were dumped out of Euro 2020 following a 2-0 loss to the Czech Republic.
One of the publication’s writers, Peter Wekking, said the Dutch team was “as bad as Wales” and incorrectly claimed that it isn’t “even a real country.”
He referred to the Welsh team as “hobby kickers”, which means amateurs, and complained about losing to a Czech team that “can’t really play football well at all.”
Railing at the way the Netherlands crashed out of the European Championships, losing to the Czech Republic yesterday, sportswriter Peter Wekking wrote: “With the victories of Max Verstappen and Matthieu van der Poel, it had everything to be a blissful Sunday. It became a black one. The Dutch national team managed the improbable thing: it managed to lose to a Czech team that can’t really play football well at all.
“At the moment that the European Championship with the knockout matches actually only started, the tournament for the Dutch national team was already coming to an end. Eliminated in the eighth finals, just like the hobby kickers from Wales. That is the state of the current Orange. Just as bad as Wales. And that’s not even a real country.”
Hobby kickers
The football magazine’s inflammatory editorial has already caused some sizeable reaction on social media in Wales, with bemused Welsh fans posting comments such as: “The Dutch are coping well with being knocked out I see” and “Stay classy Netherlands.”
Leon Barton said: “What does‚ hobby kickers‘ even mean?!”
Darren Chetty said: “From failing to qualify in 2016 to matching the 2016 semi-finalists. They’ve come on leaps and bounds.”
Dr Einir Young said: “Says more about them. Nobody likes nasty people.”
Nicholas Williams said: “Being called hobby kickers by a country that is taking defeat really well. They were champions elect on Saturday night”.
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On my travels to different countries I have experienced this very often. Many simply think we are part of England – which is what they, wrongly, refer to Britain as. I have spent so much time having to explain who we are, and who we are not. However, it seems to me that we will never change their wrong perceptions while we remain in the UK. It’s up to us….
I don’t know why it is so hard for people to understand that England is only one country in the UK.
How is it hard? England sing the BRITISH National Anthem. They call the BRITISH Cricket team ENGLAND. Political leaders can’t differentiate between England and Britain as a result.
I agree. I bought a couple of tee-shirts with the phrase ‘ Je ne suis pas anglais. Je suis Gallois’ to wear whenever I went to France and it paid dividends – I was even offered a free stand ticket for Stade de France, France v Wales Rugby International match by a lovely Breton who insisted I had the ticket, because I was Welsh.
Da iawn 😊
I experienced similar in Spain. It’s quite frustrating being taken for English and all the preconceptions that come with the generally deserved earned reputation. Once I explained I was ‘de Gales’ the reception was much warmer.
Ah yes, ‘Je suis Gallois’, ‘Nein, ich bin Waliser’ and ‘Non sono Inglese, sono Gallese’, ‘No soy inglés, soy galés’.- are all essential travel phrases.
Is Netherlands a real country ? Pull the plug on those dykes and most of it would be under water ! Odd people.
Just keep saying Holland instead of Nederlands . Really annoys them.
a bit like being called Wales all the time, instead of Cymru.
Your missing the point there slightly – Holland is not the anglicised name, it’s only two particular regions within the Netherlands (North and South Holland). Amsterdam and The Hague are in Holland. Utrecht and Maastricht aren’t.
Do you really want English people to be pronouncing it “sim-er-roo”? It’s what will happen. Most English people have only seen cymru written down.
Considering they didn’t even qualify for 2016 you’d think they’d be pleased with making it as far as we did this time!
There’s nothing uglier in sport than a bad loser. Da iawn Czechia, bad luck HOLLAND. You are both real countries and so are we.
Nah a country actually look it up. We haven’t been a principality since the 13th century.
As long as we remain part of the UK we will be looked upon as a Mickey Mouse country by many people around the world. We won’t get any respect until we take responsibility for our own destiny by becoming an independent nation in our own right.
Can the economy sustain such a separation? And what about the boarder? It’ll just be more bother than it’s worth.
This Dutch fool obviously doesn’t realise that the Football Association of Wales was founded 13 years before the Dutch equivalent.
The Welsh folk doesn’t understand that the Dutch East Indies Company ruled the World before the English got off their arses.
Bit desperate for attention aren’t you?
I’m not sure that drawing attention to being in the game of global racist economic exploitation before the English is something to crow about.
I guess you could say that your comment is a bit of an ‘own goal’!
Wekking isn’t a real journalist – a moronic rag like Voetbal International must be stark staring mad to employ him. What a hobby-kicking hack.
The Netherlands fell at the same stage as the Faroe Islands in 2016 so this is definitely an improvement by them.
Or maybe the Faroe Islands just had a good tournament back then.
Folks, this is one clickbaity voetbal magazine lashing out, because they are poor losers, not the whole Dutch nation. Nederlanders all know who we are and everyone I have met has never been anything but polite about our nation.
Don’t take it to heart. just a few “lads” whining, not the official opinion of a fine country
Some little factettes for you. Wales won the wars of the roses. Welsh soldiers put Henri Tudur on the throne of England when we won the Battle of Bosworth Field. First he, then his idiot son fat Henry8 consolidated their Welsh kingdoms and their English kingdoms together. Since both Henry’s were Welsh, England was actually a Welsh colony. When the awful Tudurs died out, after a troublesome year, James 7 of Scotland became James I of England and he consolidated England, Wales and Scotland. So England THEN became a Scots colony. AND FINALLY, following an extensive survey of the gene… Read more »
Ha ha! But the Dutch are okay, and very good guests when they visit Cymru!
The Kingdom of the Netherlands has a similar constitutional setup as the United Kingdom. A sovereign state made up constituent countries. Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten. All with their own individual national sports teams, as well as as FIFA membership in their own right. The same with the Kingdom of Denmark… Denmark, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland. So I suggest that the Dutch should look at their own national status before going after others.
Big words coming from a Dutch man that surrendered after 4 days to your German masters. Even the French call you cowards.
Get a grip. There will not be a United Kingdom for much longer!
One doesn’t need to be a ‘nationalist’ to not want to embrace being in a long abusive relationship.
Perhaps they’re just annoyed. In Welsh they are Yr Is-Almaen, the lesser Germany. So they may think we are the lesser England. Who gives a dam?
In Gaelic it’s called Little Britain.
Mmm so they lose a football game and decide to insult a country that wasn’t even involved? I thought the London media were c**p but now we have an imbecile from the Netherlands proving that media world wide employs idiots.
Is that coming from a province of belgium
It is only by gaining independence and becoming a full member of the UN will we stop these sort of crap comments.
Aw bless. Like England stopped the United States, Ireland, India or Malta?
UDI mate, UDI .
Cymric people were around long before England ever came into existence.We were here before The Roman Invasion and we will still be here after England has gone.
Frankly, I very rarely hear our politicians and cultural icons expressing pride in any aspect of our culture and identity as a nation, beyond the safe and superficial arena of sport. How can one blame outsiders from seeing us as anything more than a plastic nation if we and our leaders are not willing to promote us as anything other than a rugby team and football team?
This so called sports writer has little more than tunnel vision.By saying Wales is not a country, then by deduction neither is England, Scotland or Northern Ireland..
This also covers Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands as they are officially a part of Denmark.
How about North Macedonia which I imagine the Dutch guy could say it has just been invented.
If somebody could send him a message on twitter…thanks.
Just to confuse everyone, here’s a link to an article about Frisian separatism:
https://www.thenational.scot/news/15499680.whas-like-us-the-independence-movements-of-the-netherlands-poland/
Maybe according to this newspaper, the Netherlands wasn’t a real country when it was occupied by Germany.
The best response to idiots writing this kind of nonsense is to ignore them.
In my experience people from this small German province can get a little tetchy when continually failing to achieve much in international sporting occasions
Please don’t blame a whole nation for one guy’s comments! A lot of the comments here are very nasty about the Netherlands as if this writer was saying this on behalf of the whole country or something.
Exactly. No need to lay into a whole country, whose people have been incredibly friendly and courteous whenever and wherever I’ve met them.
I think that apart from the bad loser there, the problem may stem from the prevalence of American media on the Continent. Americans all seem to refer to “England” rather than the “United Kingdom” or “Great Britain”.
my late husband was once announced at an event he was performing at In Frankfurt as “Greg Powell from Wales, England”,
Oh dear! I understand your annoyance.
That’s rich coming from Northern Belgium
The real Briton people are the Welsh anybody else came after.