Netherlands coach denies causing Euro 2025 ‘puppet show' with podcast comments

New York Times

18 hours ago

Netherlands head coach Andries Jonker has denied causing a distraction for his team at the 2025 European Championship after appearing on a podcast to discuss his impending departure shortly before the beginning of the tournament.
The Dutch Football Association (KNVB) announced in January that Jonker's contract would not be extended beyond the end of Euro 2025.
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Speaking on the NOS Football Podcast in an episode published on Thursday, the 62-year-old said he considered quitting his role ahead of the tournament and expressed concerns over his authority and the support he was receiving.
In a heated exchange with the media ahead of the Netherlands' Euro 2025 opener against Wales on Saturday, Jonker was accused by one journalist of creating a 'puppet show', whereby everything was about him and not the players.
He responded: 'These women have given everything in 2025. Everything. And we have done that together. You people are all here today and this is thanks to us. To these women. The royal family will be there. And you have the guts to call it puppetry. If you think it's a puppet show, than you're entitled to your opinion. You are insulting the players. I have never seen you at training sessions and you're asking the players if they will believe the puppet show.'
Then questioned if he regretted his comments on the podcast, Jonker said: 'No, you know me. Sherida's (Spitse, the Netherlands captain, who was sitting next to him at the press conference) attitude tells you clearly that it doesn't affect her, it doesn't affect the team. We want to win. We want to do well.'
Asked if the comments would create an interference at the tournament, he replied: 'No, only in the media. Not with the players. You heard her (Spitse). The players know what they need to do. We want to clinch our first win this tournament and we need to do it together.'
Jonker was appointed Netherlands head coach in 2022, succeeding Mark Parsons. He led the side to the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup, where they lost to eventual champions Spain, but the Dutch failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. England assistant head coach Arjan Veurink has been confirmed as his successor.
Captain Spitse insisted the team's 'focus was on football'. Asked if Jonker was wrong to make the comments, she replied: 'You're asking me the question, but he's sitting next to me. Why don't you ask him? I can't speak on the coach's behalf.'
The small media room at Swissporarena was already hot, baked in the afternoon sun of Lucerne. But as bodies piled in, filling the space like a flooded house, there loomed the unshakable sensation of something big coming.
And then it happened.
Sherida Spitse and Andries Jonker took what felt like the stand, interrogated over Jonker's comments published 24 hours prior. Spitse did her best to defer, to insist group harmony was in order. But after 15 minutes, she retired, leaving Jonker to defend his decision to speak so publicly on a podcast about internal affairs.
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And so began the interrogation: media versus Jonker. With each question agitation grew, to a point where there was no clear line between question or answer and simply words being spat at each other, slicing through the hot air.
When a journalist accused Jonker of confecting a puppet show, Jonker returned the insult, then questioned the journalist's record of covering the team. Finally, the head coach sighed, announced he was finished answering the questions. And so ended a truly phenomenal press conference, in which anything but harmony seemed to exist.