“Even in the Netherlands I get questions about the FCL”

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Blick: René van Eck, your former club, FC Luzern, has been tearing yourself apart for weeks. What do you say about the investor troubles between Bernhard Alpstaeg and the group around Josef Bieri?
René van Eck: I don’t understand what it’s all about in detail anymore. But that can’t just happen to me. It is certain that the FCL currently gives a very bad picture. Even here in the Netherlands people ask me about my former club.

You too once had differences of opinion with Alpstaeg.
That is not good. Mr Alpstaeg and I have not exchanged a word to this day.

Yet he called you Robinson Crusoe…
… and as a bird of paradise and dream dancer. And this only because I was traded as an FCL trainer candidate by some media outlets. He criticized me without knowing me. That didn’t work at all. He could also have said: “Van Eck is not one of the candidates.” And it would have been good. Is he still going to the stadium?

He hasn’t been there for a long time.
I understand him. It’s hard to be treated like that in your own stadium.

If Alpstaeg does not sign, the FCL will probably not be licensed by the league for next season.
That would be a disaster for everyone: the club, the fans, the whole region.

Does the situation remind you of your last season as a player at FCL?
Yes. In the 1998/99 season things went well from a sporting point of view, but the club was plagued by major financial problems. Only at the last minute could the money be scraped together and the permit obtained.

For example, to collect money, players had to juggle in the Emmen shopping center. The shopping center deposited 10 francs into the empty FCL cash register for every ball contact.
Were such actions still possible in the past, today you would be considered crazy. I can remember other actions, but not the mall juggling. I think I was gone. In January 1999 I was loaned to Nuremberg.

The juggling took place in early December.
Then I probably wouldn’t have been asked to do it. I can understand that: I wouldn’t have made much money with my juggling skills.

Since January you have been a coach at VV Capelle in the fourth Dutch division. How did that happen?
I live near the club. The coach I know well currently has the coaching license. That’s why I’m helping with this now.

You also returned to the Netherlands to be closer to your mother. How is she doing?
Unfortunately my mother passed away on January 12th. She was already 96, but it was unexpected.

Sincere condolences. It must have been a difficult time…

Yes. A day before her death, I was with craftsmen at her house. We have looked at what needs to be adjusted to make life easier for her. Last fall she broke her tibia and fibula. It hurts a lot that she couldn’t go back to her house.

Will you stay in the Netherlands or will you return to Switzerland?
I’d like to have.

Sion is looking for a coach who can immediately breathe life into the team.
I would be ready right away, this team is good. You are welcome to give Mr. Constantin my number.

Not afraid of the coaching job in Zion? It would be a leap of faith.
Not at all. I swim in the lake here every morning. Recently it was so cold that it was even covered with a thin layer of ice. Every time I get out of the water I feel reborn and full of energy.

Source : Blick