National coach Roelof Koopmans after bronze at beach korfball World Championship: 'Now and then it looks like a lottery'
National coach Roelof Koopmans calls the bronze for the Netherlands at the beach korfball World Championship in China a disappointment, although it is fine for international korfball, he writes on Facebook. He wants to get rid of the shoot-outs and calls for a third set and net playing time.
All topics
Automatically translated from Dutch. Read the Dutch original.
The Netherlands went to Wanning on Hainan as defending champion. On the first day it beat Turkey after a shoot-out. In the semi-final it lost 0‑2 to Belgium, which then beat Hungary 2‑0 and became world champion. The Netherlands took bronze with a 2‑0 win over Chinese Taipei (the day report).
"Fine for international korfball, but still a disappointment for us", writes Koopmans. "The Netherlands and korfball (almost) always produce a Dutch team as the winner. That is why expectations are (rightly) always high."
He puts the bronze alongside the tournaments of recent years: "In Thailand 2024 (1st at the World Championship), Belgium 2024 (1st at the worldcup), Worldgames China 2025 (2nd), Sweden 2025 (1st at the worldcup) Portugal 2026 (1st at the worldcup) now bronze in China at the World Championship."
Read more: Beach korfball World Championship day 1: the Netherlands and Belgium win all their pool matches
Shoot-outs, third set and net playing time
According to the national coach, the changing rules do not work in favour of the better teams. "The changing rules are certainly not in favour of the ‘better’ teams and now and then it looks like a lottery, with the dreadful shootouts as the low point."
According to him, other coaches feel the same about the shoot-outs. "Not a single coach, not even from the ‘weaker’ countries, is enthusiastic about this rule."
First of all, he says, the rules committee should abolish the shoot-outs and introduce a third set when the sets are tied at 1‑1, along with net playing time. "The sets are already short and between 1 and 2 minutes are lost because the clock keeps running for everything."
Praise for Belgium and China
He does not take anything away from Belgium's win. "That does not change the fact that Belgium were the deserved winners, regardless of the bizarre rules. Congratulations to our southern neighbours."
About the tournament he writes: "China was beautiful, special and grand. Superbly organised."
And about the team: "The Dutch beach korfball team did everything it could to retain the World Championship title. It was just not enough, on to revenge, on to Thailand (April 2027)?"