The UNIQLO Interview: The Cruyff Foundation

Since 2003 the Cruyff Foundation has supported ITF Wheelchair Tennis development work throughout the world and in 2004 became an ITF Wheelchair Tennis Programme Partner to support the further development of an international junior wheelchair tennis programme.

The far-reaching influence of the Cruyff Foundation also extends to supporting specific events and tournaments on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour that are invaluable to player development. The most prominent of these is, of course, the annual Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters in Tarbes, France, the premier tournament for the world’s leading junior wheelchair tennis players. Meanwhile, the Cruyff Foundation also supports the junior event at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup and is title sponsor of the ITF’s Junior Wheelchair Tennis Rankings.

The Foundation was launched in 1997 by legendary Dutch football player and coach Johan Cruyff and every week helps thousands of children throughout the world to become active, thereby not only enhancing their physical health, but also their mental health and, therefore, their overall personal development and well-being.

“In 1997 we started sports projects for children with disabilities. This was the result of a personal experience of Johan: he noticed that children with disabilities could gain a lot of self-confidence through sport,” says Niels Meijer, Director of the Cruyff Foundation. “At the start-up of the Cruyff Foundation, we supported around five projects. Nowadays, we support more than 40 projects per year, and we also work with various foundations that are committed to sports for the disabled and, of course, the sports associations.”

Meijer continues: “More recently, our own projects have been added as well. We started the Cruyff Courts in 2003, followed by the Schoolyard14 project in 2012. Both projects have the same aim as the sports projects for the disabled: to allow children to experience fun in sports and play, and in this way make a lasting contribution to their self-confidence and development.

“We try to link the various projects as much as possible. For example, we have Cruyff Courts and Schoolyards14 in districts and at schools for special education and when realising sports projects for the disabled we always look for opportunities for cooperation,” he adds.

It is this spirit of cooperation and partnership that Meijer says is key to the success of the working relationship between the Cruyff Foundation and the ITF.

“The ITF’s work affects all aspects of our mission. We give children the space to engage in sports and play, so they can move up by being active. We feel that it is important that all children are offered this opportunity, irrespective of their disabilities and backgrounds. This is why recreational sports projects are very important to us,” he says. “But if a child appears to be talented, nothing could be nicer than to give them the opportunity to develop this talent. Together with the ITF we focus on both the Wheelchair Tennis Development Fund and Junior Camps, and therefore on recreational sports projects and talent development programmes.”

When it comes to providing increased opportunities for disabled children, the Cruyff Foundation has opened 50 Special Cruy­ff Courts worldwide. These spaces challenges children to get active, whilst also providing the versatility to promote integration between disabled and non-disabled children. The Foundation has calculated that a Special Cruyff­ Court is used each week, on average, by 231 disabled children. Meanwhile, 93 Schoolyards14 projects have been opened in the special education sector in the Netherlands, Spain, South-Africa and Brazil.

More specifically, with regards to the Cruyff Foundation’s impact on wheelchair tennis worldwide, Meijer says:

“During the annual Cruyff Foundation Open Day, that we organised for the 19th time in September, children are introduced to 30 sports. Ever since the first Open Day, wheelchair tennis has been one of these sports.

“We are excited that we have been able to support the ITF hosting junior and development projects in more than 40 countries. The focus has been on making sports wheelchairs available, training coaches and supporting the development of various wheelchair tennis programmes.”

Events such as last month’s Cruyff Foundation Open Day – where current Dutch Football Team Manager Ronald Koeman was among those to try wheelchair tennis - and the annual Cruyff Foundation Junior Wheelchair Tennis Camp for Europe, currently held in Alphen aan den Rijn, also benefit from the experience of another Dutch sporting legend – Esther Vergeer.

“We also cooperate on a local level with the Esther Vergeer Foundation. to make wheelchair tennis projects at sports clubs more accessible. For all our projects it is important to work in partnerships with sports associations and (comparable) foundations,” says Meijer. “These partnerships enhance our possibilities and scope, but often also reinforce the power of the project, making the impact we can realise even bigger.”

“Aside from Esther Vergeer, a number of other ambassadors are associated with us in the field of wheelchair tennis. For example, Tom Egberink, Maikel Scheffers, Gordon Reid, and Kgothatso Montjane. Most of them started playing wheelchair tennis internationally during one of the Junior Camps that we have been organising with the ITF since 2003.”

To mark 10 years of the Cruyff Foundation’s partnership with the ITF, Cruyff Foundation Project Manager Miranda van Holstein travelled with Vergeer on a Wheelchair Tennis Development Fund project visit to South Africa in 2003. The visit enabled her to witness wheelchair tennis clinics in action in Elandsdoorn and Johannesburg.

“It was a very impressive journey that has made a tremendous impression on me. It was wonderful to see that we could give children with disabilities, who have very little or nothing, the feeling that there were possibilities for them,” says van Holstein. “We gave them something to look forward to, and sometimes, literally, prospects for the future.

“The sports accommodations there were so much poorer than here in the Western world, but the will was so strong. People did not hesitate to travel more than two hours, in a wheelchair (!), to come to their tennis class. We reached people who, among other things, because of their disabilities had never left the township before, but who now were given the opportunity to do so.”

While Johan Cruyff passed away in 2016, his legacy shines bright as the work of the Cruyff Foundation continues to make an enormous difference to the lives of disabled and non-disabled children around the world. Meijer says:

“What makes us most proud is that we have been able to continue Johan’s vision since his death in 2016, so the Cruyff Legacy lives on. Every day, we make thousands of children active. We give them the space to engage in sports and play, through which they can improve both their physical health and their mental health. Through which they can develop and bring out the best in themselves. That impact is why we do it and what we are so proud of.

“By now, there are 207 Cruyff Courts, 50 Special Cruyff Courts and 500 schools with a Schoolyard14 worldwide. We support many sport projects for young people with disabilities. Every week, we make more than 200,000 children worldwide active.”

So what is the aim for the future? Meijer continues:

“For the future we are committed to using every initiative to underline our aim: to help children make a step in their development. We want to increase our impact on an international level. We want to achieve this by monitoring the content or our projects, and by responding to new insights arising from research into the effective use of sports with young people. Where possible, we become stronger by working together with other organisations. When selecting our projects we particularly focus on vulnerable children and the sustainability of a project.”