Our Story
Rinus is named after the legendary football coach Rinus Michels. He’s credited with the invention of a major football playing style and set of tactics known as ‘Total Football’, which is the base of the Dutch vision on football. Famous for its attractive, innovative and attacking style of play, Rinus Michels was named ‘Coach of the 20th Century’ by FIFA in 1999.
As a coach, Rinus Michels became most notable for his coaching achievements: he won the European Cup with Ajax and the Spanish league with FC Barcelona. He led the Netherlands National Team to reach the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and to win the 1988 European Championship.
Johan Cruijff, Louis van Gaal and Pep Guardiola, some of the best tacticians in the world, derived their core philosophy from Rinus Michels ‘Total Football’ and incorporated within their teams.
His vision on football is also the basic foundation for the Dutch vision on football. We’ve incorporated this vision in Rinus Football. It’s our tribute to Rinus Michels.
Our Team
Our team is a corporation of the Royal Netherlands Football Association, Dotcomsport and NMC Bright and is specialized in implementing and providing software to football organizations and federations. We know the ins and outs of football federations, which makes us able to support the federation or confederation with all kinds of practical examples. Due to auditing (international) football organizations for years, we have accumulated a broad knowledge ranging from grassroots to the elite level.
Johan Henkes
Director
Dotcomsport
Joeri Houniet
Digital Football Development
KNVB
Wouter Kuperus
Director
NMC Bright
Lennard van Ruiven
Technical Director
KNVB
Dutch Vision
The ‘Total Football’ philosophy of Rinus Michels is the foundation of the Dutch vision on football. It’s known for its attractive and offensive style, which is still recognizable in the current Dutch football landscape and the Dutch National Team. Many great players have been educated with this DNA.
The main objective of Rinus and the KNVB is to let players enjoy football and to let them learn how to play football. Within this vision, a number of requirements are set for football exercises:
- They must be reality based
- A game problem must be solved
- The players must experience the form of football as a game (they need to score, defend, transition, etc.)
- Learning skills is not an isolated matter, but must take place in relation to the football game
Learning to play football is about teaching players to play the game (better) in a child-friendly or youth-following way. Children enjoy playing football if their development opportunities are addressed at the right time and the right way. Players have fun if you give them football tasks that they can actually handle. They started playing football because they like playing football so much; that involves scoring, attacking, defending and transitioning.
