Ministry of Health, Wellbeing and Sports visits Vitesse Legends

A delegation of the Ministry of Health, Wellbeing and Sports visited the Vitesse Legends last Tuesday. The visit was part of an exchange between the National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands and the ministry. Around 45 persons of both organizations visited the Vitesse training ground on Tuesday. They participated in the Walking Football training and got a presentation from the Vitesse Foundation and the Dutch FA about the European Legends program.

Vitesse Legends coach Ton Vosselman lead the training and let the visitors experience Walking Football. Walking Football is a football variant which perfectly fits the target group (60+ men and women). It is not allowed to run, physical contact is prohibited and the ball is may not come above the hips.

In the presentation about the project Joost Wijnhoud, from the Dutch FA, spoke about the impact of the project and the ambitions for the future: “We would like to have over 6000 walking footballers in 2018 throughout the Legends project”. Martijn de Wild from the Vitesse foundation about the project: “The Vitesse Legends are a real team! We would like to reach and involve more people in our region with this great project. Besides that we are investigating the possibilities of expanding the project to other sports, for example hockey.” Participant Jan Verhaaf told about his own experiences with the program: “We are much more than just a football team. We are a family. I would like to recommend the program to everyone! It really changed my life. Each Thursday is Vitesse Legends day!”

Vitesse and the European Football for Development Network will organize the first European Championship in Walking Football this September. The tournament will be held at the training ground of Vitesse. Around 24 Legends teams will participate in the tournament.

For more information about the project please contact Robin Jansen (project leader Vitesse Legends) by: r.janssen@vitessebetrokken.nl or +31 26 8807549.