The Dutch Lions Group USA LLC is a joint venture between Tammer Sportmanagement B.V., Business and Sports Performance and FinFac Beheer B.V. In October 2009 they registered the Dayton Dutch Lions LLC and purchased the license to play professional soccer in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) in Dayton OHIO.
Besides a full professional 1st Men's team (Dayton Dutch Lions FC) - that will play in USL PRO in 2011 after making it's debut in the Premier Development League in 2010 and finishing 3rd -, the club also added a Women's team that will be playing in the W-League of the USL. Both the Men's team as well as the Women's team will consist of several professional Dutch players.
The Dutch Lions FC also have a Youth Academy in order to develop youth players to professional players. This Academy is based on the Dutch youth development philosophy, ranked worldwide in category 1 according to FIFA. The quality of the Youth Academy is guaranteed through a close partnership with Dutch Premier League club FC Twente, who’s Youth Academy was voted Best Academy in 2007 and 2008. Their first team also won the Championship in the Premier League in the Netherlands in 2010. In May and June 2010 Rene Hake, an Academy Advisor from FC Twente visited the Dutch Lions FC Academy to set the structure according to their successfull development model.
The Dutch Lions FC will start educating kids at the age of seven and develop them eight to ten years to prep them for a professional career in either the USA or Europe. Therefore we consider the Dutch Lions FC to be the “Gateway to professional soccer”. And even if a professional career is out of reach, we believe our quality education in the Premier Academy will more than likely contribute towards obtaining a soccer scholarship for a college career.
The reason of starting a (Dutch) soccer club in the USA is that there are 18 million soccer players in the USA (the most in the world) and although the Americans dominate almost every sport, there are almost no US players performing at the world’s top level. We feel this is due to a lack of tactical development, something the Dutch school is known for worldwide.
In case you are interested in joining our "Orange family" as a player, supporter, coach or investor, please contact us!
Background information
Tammer Sportmanagement is owned by Erik Tammer who is a former professional player for premier league clubs such as AFC Ajax Amsterdam, SC Heerenveen en Sparta Rotterdam. He guides and advises young talented players socially and financially. Business and Sports Performance is owned by Mike Mossel and advises individuals and companies on performance improvement. He also played for First Division clubs RBC Roosendaal, KFC Turnhout (Belgium) and Cincinnati Riverhawks (USA) and graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati (Ohio). Both Erik and Mike went through the prestigious KNVB UEFA C and UEFA B Pro (former profesional players) training courses. FinFac beheer B.V. is owned by Peter van der Molen and is a financial consultancy company.