We needed a serious competition to decide who was the strongest club team in Europe MAURITS HENDRIKS Jons Hensel: “I went out for dinner with Leandro Negre in Amsterdam that weekend, during which I explained I was going to present a proposal for a new format. That turned out to be the beginning of the deal that was ultimately made. I have the ability to turn a vision into something with a tangible form. Leandro Negre made a great contribution by creating the space that was needed to realise the vision. If you want to mention Bert and Maurits and me, I feel you have to mention his name in the same breath.” Hendriks: “Not that Leandro Negre was dumbfounded though, he knew about my ideas as we had gotten to know each other well in Spain and also visited each other at home. I had already been involved for quite some time in broadcasting hockey and adapting new rules in the game. Actually this goes back to 1997 when I was a federation coach and was allowed to take part in meetings at the FIH. We always had a chance to express our opinions but then you noticed nothing was ever done with those ideas. After a while I was quite fed up with it. Leandro also knew how frustrating it was.” It’s all about the money “Jons literally brings people together”, says Maurits Hendriks. “He got Leandro involved, he got Bert Spaak and myself introduced, and he managed to get ABN AMRO on board as a sponsor. Only a couple of days later the three of us were already sticking our heads together. During just one afternoon we worked out the format for the Euro Hockey League. It was also very helpful that I had already become involved with a new hockey competition in India. There, the television network ESPN had already given me a free hand to introduce new concepts. We were already playing in four quarters there in order to create additional broadcast time for commercials. There were a few other things like coupling a time-penalty to a green card, which until then had only consisted of a warning without further consequences.” Bert Spaak: “Once we had worked out the plan we presented it to Leandro Negre. We had a dinner in the Philips Stadium during a PSV Champions League game. That dinner was organised by André Bolhuis, who at the time was still Chairman of the Dutch Hockey Federation, KNHB. Leandro was enthusiastic and we were permitted to present it to the Board of the European Hockey Federation. They were also enthusiastic, and subsequently we conducted the actual negotiations with David Balbirnie, the Secretary-General of the EHF. Ultimately that led to the establishment of the Private Company EHL Media & Marketing and the Private Company EHL Licensing, of which the EHF and PRO SPORT each own fi fty percent of the shares.” Jons Hensel: “You can transform a vision into a concrete form but if you don’t have the bucks you still have nothing. As one of the initiators I considered it my job to see to it that the fi nancial aspect was put together. As it turned out it was not all that diffi cult. Actually, ABN AMRO was immediately enthusiastic about the proposal. At that time the bank was very focused on investing in 29 20 07 20 12 FOTO: FRANK UIJLENBROEK Pagina 28
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