New release of site ! This month the new site has been released. On the homepage it is possible to search for a club or country scarf, to vote on the Poll question and to link easily to scarves of  F.C. Utrecht, Liverpool, Celtic, Borussia Dortmund and other club scarves. Credits to Wim van de Gein who did a great job regarding development and design. Additions this month : thanks to Patrick van Tergouw I could add two F.C. Utrecht scarves to the collection, one of them is from the seventies. In January I visited two games in the Jupiler League, the second division in the Netherlands: FC Dordrecht - Telstar (2-0) and FC Oss - SC Cambuur (3-2). Scarves of the home clubs have been added to the collection which means that the collection contains scarves now of all Eredivisie and Jupiler League clubs. In a souvenir shop in the centre of Amsterdam they are selling football scarves of the major clubs in Europe but to my surprise they had also Bangor (Northern Ireland), LASK Linz and a country scarf of Israel.

December 17, I took the train to Osnabruck for visiting the match VFL Osnabruck - Darmstad (4-1) in the third Bundesliga. Good atmosphere in the city and in the stadium and the level of the game was not bad at all. Equal to bottom Eredivisie in the Netherlands.Before the match I visited the fanshop in the centre of the city and I bought a VFL bar scarf and an 'Ostkurve' - scarf. Amazing to see how big and well organised this third Bundesliga club is. At the end of December Diego Sanchez Mullor from Alicante did offer me a lot of Spanish scarves. For me this was the chance to complete the Spanish Primera Division in my collection and to add some scarves of clubs which played in the Primera Division in the past. Just before yearend I received the package with scarves of Albacete, Almeria, Burgos, Elche, Extremadura, Gimnastic de Tarragona, Granada, Hercules, Levante, Linares, Merida, Rayo Vallecano and Salamanca. Good progress have been made with the revision of the site. Within a couple of weeks we will go 'live'. 

In November I bought the pink 'away' F.C. Utrecht scarf for Sybrand Andringa and he added scarves of Luxembourg,  Brno, Terrassa and Lleida to the collection. At the football collectors fair in Valkenswaard I could buy the Ajax Champions League final match scarves from 1995, Ajax - AC Milan and 1996, Ajax - Juventus. Besides these two scarves I could buy scarves of Monaco,Feyenoord and the match scarf Feyenoord - Freiburg from 2002. In exchange for pennants of dutch and european clubs Alberto Javier Del Cura Delgado added some beautiful scarves of clubs from Venezuela; Deportivo Tachira, Deportivo Lara, Alberto's club Estudiantes Merida and Caracas. The coming months the homepage of the site will be changed considerably, Wim van de Gein the man behind the 'technics' of the site is making good progress and the new homepage will be ready early 2012. 

Beginning of October I visited the football collectors fair in Houten. At the fair F.C. Utrecht fan Hubert Buter was selling football souvenirs and thanks to him I could add two F.C. Utrecht match scarves to the collection; AGOVV - F.C. Utrecht  and Liverpool - F.C. Utrecht. Another F.C. Utrecht fan and collector Jasper Oostlander brought an old scarf of our favourite club with him. Jasper is collecting F.C. Utrecht match pins and F.C. Utrecht match scarves. See links for his site. From other people I bought the following scarves at the fair : match scarf Urkrain - Netherlands, Benfica away, Belarus, Cluj, Bodo/Glimt, Riverplate, St. Johnstone, Sporting Lissabon, LKS Lodz and Amkar Perm. Later in October I finally could buy via Internet the 'Invasion of Liverpool' scarf , the seventh(!) Liverpool - F.C. Utrecht match scarf in the collection.

The month September is normally a relative quiet month just after the holiday but not this year. Approximately 30 scarves are added to the collection this month. From internet sellers I bought the following scarves : San Marino, four F.C. Utrecht scarves , the official Feyenoord 2003 Uefa-cup final scarf, a scarf issued when Ajax won the champions league in 1995 and the match scarf Celtic - Porto.

The game Celtic - Porto was perhaps most remarkable for having what UEFA described as "the largest travelling support to have assembled for a single game" - around 80,000 Celtic fans travelled to Seville for the final.For this turnout and the manner with which they conducted themselves, Celtic fans received an award from FIFA and UEFA, winning the FIFA Fair Play Award that year and being presented with a formal recognition from UEFA at a home match the following season.(Wikipedia)

Also this month Jelmer Boots received a big package with scarves from Alberto Javier Del Cura Delgado from Merida, Venezuela. Most of the Scarf Collectors Holland had no scarf from Venezuela in their collection. Thanks to Jelmer and Alberto Javier the Venezuela Country scarf and club scarf Zamora have been added to the collection. Besides the first club from Venezuela, the first club from Belarus is new in the collection; Bate Borisov. Jelmer added this scarf to my collection together with scarves from the Brazilian clubs Fluminense,Internacional,Gremio, and Avai FC, Levski Sofia from Bulgaria and Braintree Town of which club he visited a game in England. Jelmer Boots is also the driving force behind Scarf Collectors Holland. September 17 we had our second trip. In April this year we visited Wuppertal - Elversberg and VVV - Heerenveen. This day we had an even more busy program. In the morning we visited a scarf manufacturer in Brabant and we felt as children in a candy store. The owner gave us the opportunity to buy some scarves for a very reasonable price and we were all able to add some scarves to our collections.Scarves of AGOVV, Red Army(Antwerp), Cercle Brugge, Litex Lovech, Botev Plovdiv, Paok Saloniki, Sampdoria, Goztepe and scarves of the polish clubs Jagiellonia, Miedz Legnica, Jedlicze, Szombierki was the result after a small hour. The following stop was Duisburg where we visited MSV Duisburg - Union Berlin. Most of us bought a scarf of the home team. The game ended in a draw, thanks to a 'lucky' penalty given to the Zebra's, Union was the better team. Weather, beer and Bratwurst were great, game average and fans enthousiastic but less agressive than the fans in Holland which have less flags but are showing more commitment with the game.

After the match we travelled another 180 km to Antwerp and made a stop in Turnhout to visit the stadium of KV Turnhout, unfortunately the people from the club had no scarves they could sell us.After half an hour we were on our way again to Het Kiel. In this part of Antwerp Beerschot AC is the local club and they were playing against Zulte Waregem tonight (2-0). Both clubs are not top teams in Belgium but the level of the game was very high compared to MSV-Union but also to games we have seen in Holland this season. Atmosphere around the stadium was typical english; stadium squeezed between the houses and pubs around the stadium where the fans are meeting each other before and after the match.Good atmosphere in the stadium during the match with good support from the Armata Viola. Fully packed with scarves we drove back to Holland after a geat day. Looking forward to the next trip ! Last but not least I exchanged this month some scarves with Sybrand Andringa and Wouter Snall, both Scarf Collector Holland. New in the collection : Perugia, Mantova, Ujpest and two Liverpool scarves.October is waiting starting with the Football Collectors Market in Houten at the first of October.

When the football season is over it should be a quiet period for a football scarve collector but not if you are visiting Poland. On our way to this country we visited Berlin as well. In a souvenir shop I could buy Dynamo Berlin and a DDR (!) country scarf ,not an original from the the seventies or eighties but still welcome.In Poland we stayed in all big cities and besides some beautiful friendships scarves (three clubs on the scarve instead of the standard two clubs friendship scarve) I bought two Eurochampionship 2012 scarves.Club scarves of the following clubs were added to the collection in Poland: Arka Gdynia, Cracovia, Garbarnia, Hutnik, Jagiellonia, Korona Kielce, Lech Poznan, Lechia Gdansk, Odra Wodzislaw, Polonia Bytom, Ruch Chorzow, Slask Wroclaw, Stal Mielec, Widzew Lodz, Wisla Krakow, Zaglebie Lubin, Zakopane and Maccabi Tel Aviv(!). Polish footballfans are fanatics and they are expressing this with their scarves, so plenty opportunities for collectors.During our trip we visited fanshops of Lech Poznan, Lechia Gdansk, Slask Wroclaw and the stadiums of Cracovia, Wisla Krakow and Polonia Warszawa.

 On our way back to the Netherlands we visited Dresden and the stadium of Dynamo Dresden, the 'sleeping giant'. In their beautiful fanshop two scarves were added to the collection. Back in the Netherlands I exchanged some holiday scarves with Aaron van Maaren (See links for his site) who visited Bosnia and  Herzegovina this summer.Besides scarves of NK Celik and NK Iskra, Aaron added country scarve Togo to the collection. Since I am collecting football scarves, friends, family and colleagues who are visiting foreign countries are surprising me with scarves. In July, colleague Stefan Holla visited family in Ukrain and brought a scarve of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (UEFA-cup opponent of FC Utrecht in 2004) to the Netherlands. 

Beginning  of this month, I got a mail from Kevin Daems living in Geel, Belgium. Besides some scarves from the Belgium clubs Seraing, Racing Mechelen, Lierse SK, KV Mechelen, Waterschei Thor, Linda Olen and Germinal Beerschot he offered me some scarves from the Russian clubs FC Ural, FC Moscow, Saturn, Chelyabinsk, Krylia Sovetov Samara, Kuban Krasnodar, Luch-Energiya.The text on the Russian scarves is in Cyrillic, not the easiest language.The total package I took over from him is a beautifull extension of my collection.The other scarves in the package are Wrexham, Mandalskameratene Norway, Helmond Sport, Go Ahead Eagles, Hearts, Timisoara, Slavia Sofia (first Bulgarian club in the collection), OFI Kreta, PAOK Saloniki and Panathinaikos.Steaua Bucuresti fan George Ilinca did send me a mail and did ask me if it was possible to get the scarf of Mihai Nesu  who broke his neck in May during a training session and has been removed to a revalidation centre where he is working on his recovery. My mother heard about the request and we did send him her Miha Nesu scarf together with the European League match scarf F.C. Utrecht - Steaua. In exchange he did send me a country scarf of Romania,one of the last missing European countries in the collection.Under 'Links' you can find the link to George's site.      

Tuesday May 10, F.C . Utrecht player Mihai Nesu broke his neck during a training session. As it looks now, it will be the end of his career and it is very uncertain if he will fully recover. A tragedy for Mihai, his family, club and fans. Before the match against AZ a big Romanian flag with his picture was laid down on the pitch (see picture), fans were wearing scarves with the Romanian flag colours and his picture and players wear T-shirts with the same design. 

Additions this month : Ulm, Union Berlin, Dundee, Cadiz, Hibernian, Gretna, F.C. Utrecht - Liverpool Bunnikside scarf , F.C. Utrecht - Napoli scarf, Houten, Utrecht City Saints, the Mighty Mike - Michael Mols scarf and the Champions League final scarf Barcelona - Manchester United. 

Visting football matches and cities in other countries is allways a good opportunity to add scarves to the collection.The month April started with F.C. Utrecht - ADO. Before the match I exchanged some scarves with Dutch scarf collector Sybrand Andringa. Scarves of Rot Weiss Oberhausen, Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund were added to the collection that day.My goal is to collect scarves from different clubs and not collecting a lot of scarves of a few clubs but I am making an exception for F.C. Utrecht ,Celtic,Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund. A week later F.C. Utrecht was playing at home against Feyenoord, a match scarf was sold at the Fanshop, the scarf is more beautiful than the result of the match (0-4).A few days later I was in Berlin for my job.Hertha BSC has a beautiful fanshop in the Haubtbahnhoff, besides an 'Ostkurve' scarf I bought a friendship scarve; Karlsruhe - Hertha. April 16, derby day , the mother of all derbies, Ijsselmeervogels against Spakenburg...Together with old colleague Arthur van Twillert ,one of his new colleagues and Sybrand we saw Vogels beating Spakenburg with 3-2. Arthur added his third Vogels scarf to the collection: the Traditie,Passie and Succes scarf issued in 2010 after winning the title. April 23 was the first time that the Holland scarf collectors made a football trip.Thanks to Wouter Snall we were wearing a 'Scarf collectors Holland on tour 2011' - scarf (See Scarves-Others). We visited Wuppertal SV - Elversberg , the Borussia Monchengladbach fanshop and later in the evening VVV - Heerenveen. During the day we bought scarves from Wuppertal SV ,Borussia Dortmund (Deutscher Meister 2011) , Borussia Monchengladbach and VVV. Great day, scarf collecting unites !  For the collection of the other Dutch scarf collectors , see Links.Last week of April I visited Stockholm,hometown of Hammarby,Djurgarden and AIK. Besides scarves of these clubs I was able to add the country scarves of Jamaica and Slovenia to the collection. Back in the office, they told me that the regional TV item about my collection,broadcasted in March is now on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WZRgiqt5aY 

Beginning of March, I visited the football collectors fair in Houten.Collector Hubert Buter added the following special scarf to the collection: an USSR scarf from 1989. Besides this scarf he contributed scarves of Austria Wien,Polonia,Bedworth and Celtic. From other collectors I bought a matchscarf of Celtic-F.C. Utrecht (scarf number 5 of these for F.C. Utrecht historical matches) and scarves of Greece and the match Netherlands-Finland. With Sybrand Andringa I exchanged F.C. Utrecht scarves for scarves of Gornik Zabrze and Universitatea Craiova. Later in the month Dennis Mandic contacted me because he has decided to stop collecting scarves.Besides scarves of Paderborn, Hajduk, Borussia Dortmund, VVV and Champions League final 2009 Manchester United - Barcelona I took over three Feyenoord match scarves.The matches are the home matches for the Uefa-Cup 2001-2002 against Rangers, PSV and Inter Milan.The scarf of the final against Borussia Dortmund was already in the collection.In March the regional TV and Radio station made an item about my collection and asked me to show the scarves. It took me some time to prepare the item ....

Since summer 2010,no country scarves have been added to the collection but thanks to Jelmer Boots, a scarf of Bangladesh has been added this month.Besides this scarf, he added one of Slatina(Romania) to the collection. From another Holland Scarve Collector, Wouter Snall I could get scarves of Piacenza, Cliftonville and Dinamo Bucharest.The first club of Slovenia is now in the collection : NK Maribor.With César Freitas from Porto I exchanged a Portugal scarf for a Coimbra scarf. César has a collection of more than 120 Portugal scarves but found one on my site not yet on his collection.For my birthday ,my son Kevin gave me the orange-black FC Utrecht-away scarve of this season. Under 'links' the site of Sunderland fan Ian Holmes can be found   http://tvfootballscarves.weebly.com/  ,visit the site and enjoy the video under 'BBC TV Scarves' !

January 2011 was a quiet month, not a surprise after the roller coast program of my club F.C. Utrecht during August-December 2010. Colleague Tatiana Menchikova gave me a match scarf of the match Netherlands-England played in August 2009.Roda JC fan Bart Elders added three Roda JC scarves and a Forza Juve scarf to the collection. Last week of January I was in Hamburg and able to buy two Sankt Pauli scarves in the Fanshop at the Millerntor stadium.

With 4000 other F.C. Utrecht fans, I attended the Europe League match Liverpool - F.C. Utrecht together with my son Kevin ,son-in-law Frank and friend Wolter. Allthough the match was a friendly because of earlier results in the poule the whole trip was an unforgettable experience.

Besides the match we did the Everton stadium tour at Goodison park and the Liverpool experience; visiting Anfield and the Liverpool museum. It was a beatiful end of the European campaign with 4 wins,6 draws and 2 losses.Under scarves ==> F.C. Utrecht you can find the match scarves of the matches against Liverpool. Besides the match scarves, I also bought an Everton scarf in the Everton fanshop and a 'You never walk alone' - scarf at Anfield.  

Earlier this month, thanks to Jelmer Boots I was able to extend the collection with scarves from the lower English divisions. Scarves of the following clubs have been added : Brentford, Enfield, Port Vale, Rushden & Diamonds, Swansea, York City, Doncaster Rovers, Barnsley, Wrexham, Tamworth, Stockport, Huddersfield and Oldham.Also scarves of Perth Glory and St.Patricks Athletic have been added, the first scarves of clubs from Australia and Ireland. Total number of scarves at the end of 2010 : 826

5 years ago, 29 november 2005, F.C.Utrecht player David di Tomaso died after an heart attack in his sleep at a age of 26. His last match was on November 27,a victory against Ajax (1-0), F.C.Utrecht's main rival. On December 1, 2005, a meeting of supporters at Stadium Galgenwaard was held, to honour Di Tommaso (DiTo for short). At least 14,000 fans showed up (See picture). Among the speakers were coach Foeke Booy and captain Jean-Paul de Jong. Besides Di Tommaso's relatives and FC Utrecht's main squad, all of the clubs' youth teams were among the visitors. They were told that number 4, the number worn by Di Tommaso, would be retired from use. Sedan, Di Tommaso's former club, had already announced that number 29, the number Di Tommaso used when he played for the club, would be retired. Since 2006 the player of the year award is called the Di Tommaso trophy in honour of David Di Tommaso. The trophy is voted for by the fans.Pictures of the December 1,2005 meeting will be on the home page in December and after this month, they can be found under 'Pictures'.

Additions to  the collection this month : Hubert Buter visited Steaua Bucuresti - F.C.Utrecht and brought two scarves back to Holland; an Europa League scarf showing the logo's of Liverpool, Napoli, Steaua and F.C. Utrecht and a Steaua scarf. With Sybrand Andringa I exchanged two F.C.Utrecht scarves for scarves from Emmen,Omniworld and F.C.Groningen. Colleague Berry van der Haring gave me some PSV club and match scarves, a Sevilla - Middlesbrough match scarf and a Manchester United scarf.

Saturday October 2 , i visited the football collectors fair in Houten again and added scarves of the following clubs to the collection: Skalnik Gracze(Poland), Argentina, Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen, Liverpool, Millwall, Auxerre, Ireland, Juventus, Go Ahead, Volendam, Sevilla and F.C. Utrecht. Hubert Buter, also present at the fair, enabled me to obtain another (the fourth) Celtic - F.C. Utrecht match scarf. October 12 I saw the dutch national team beating Sweden with 4-1, a lot of fans from Sweden bought the match scarf but I was lucky and could also get one. Before the match F.C. Utrecht - Steaua, the official match scarves were sold out but the day after the match I could buy it in the fanshop in the centre of the city together with the official F.C. Utrecht - Napoli scarf. At the last day of the month I bought via Internet an old F.C. Utrecht scarf from 1997.       

After the two matches against Celtic in August, another giant and my favourite English club Liverpool visited F.C. Utrecht at 30 September, again an historical match for the club. The two match scarfs of this match can be found under Scarves ==> F.C. Utrecht. Other F.C. Utrecht European match scarves added to the collection this month : Auxerre(2003), Grazer AK (home and away - 2001), Legia Warschau(2002), Napoli (2010), Steau Boekarest(2010) and a scarf with the logo's of the clubs of European League 2010 Poule K ;  Liverpool, Napoli, Steau and F.C. Utrecht. With F.C. Twente fan Marcel Cerri I could exchange F.C. Twente scarves, in my collection is now the 'You never walk alone' scarf which could be bought when the club celebrated the 40 years anniversary in 2005. We met each other before the competition match F.C. Twente - Groningen (4-2 ,very good atmosphere in the stadium and impressive support by the Twente fans). Under  'Links'  you will find the link to Marcel's site. After buying the Blackpool scarf via Football Heaven the premier League is complete again.              

At August 19 and August 26 F.C. Utrecht played 2 historical matches against Celtic. After 4 domestic play-off games and 2 qualification rounds, the final hurdle to the Europa League was Celtic. Together with another 1,500 fans I saw the match at Celtic Park (2-0 loss) on August 19 and bought a Celtic - F.C. Utrecht friendship scarf and a Celtic  'you'll never walk alone' scarf at Celtic Park.

 The next day I visited the stadium and did the stadium tour and bought a 'Hoops' scarf in the fan store . Both match and tour were an unforgettable experience.

Nobody in the world did foresee the 4-0 victory a week later at Galgenwaard. You can find 2 match scarves and the friendship scarve under Scarves==> F.C. Utrecht. In the next round we will play Steau,Napoli and Liverpool.... Earlier this month, I added 2 Celtic scarves and scarves of Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Northampton Town, Liverpool, Spurs and Galatasaray to the collection after visiting Jelmer Boots site. Just before the F.C. Utrecht - Willem II game,  F.C. Utrecht fans Paul and Mandy surprised me with a Wigan Athletic scarf ,which is very difficult to get. One country scarf has been added this month : South Africa, a gift from André Conradie, a colleague of my brother in law Jan Smit.

Some changes of the homepage have been implemented this month. Because of the number of F.C. Utrecht scarves , these scarves have a specific option under scarves  from now on. The F.C. Utrecht scarves will not be shown under clubs anymore. Another change is that from now on the pictures on the homepage will be changed on a regular basis. Because of the upcoming clash F.C. Utrecht - Celtic for the play-offs European League pictures of these clubs will be shown this month. Just returned from a journey in Canada. Scarves from soccer clubs are difficult to get. Ice Hockey is and will be the number 1 sport over there. In Toronto I was not able to find a Toronto FC scarf but in Vancouver in a shop where you are not expecting that they are selling scarves (Sears) I could buy a Vancouver Whitecaps scarf. In other shops I bought the following country scarves : Tunisia, South Korea, South Africa, Slovakia, Canada and Serbia.       

Beginning of June, the dutch national team did play their last friendly before the World Championship against Hungary in the Arena. Before entering the stadium I bought the match scarf. Besides this match scarf two other Holland scarfs have been added to the collection. This month I had contact with Jelmer Boots (number 1 scarf collector in the Netherlands),which was a long time ago. He offered two F.C. Utrecht  scarfs and scarfs of Macclesfield (England),Trencin (Slowakia) and Gelios(Ukrain) that are now in the collection.After all these years I was finally able to add a scarf to his collection : a 15 year old Heerenveen cupfinal scarf. My son Kevin gave me a country scarf of Poland, my brother in law Jan Smit bought a very unique scarf during a business trip, a country scarf of Lebanon.Pictures of the last two scarfs will be on the site in August.    

May is the month of the finals. Hubert Buter,one of the directors of True Support (FC Utrecht fan club with around 800 members) saw the Champions League Final in Madrid between Bayern and Inter and bought two match scarves for me. Excelsior will play in the Eredivisie next year,in May i ordered the club scarf via www.jupilerleaguefanshop.nl, a site where you can order fan articles of all Jupiler League clubs.Another Jupiler League club has been added in May as well, colleague Gerard Bakker bought a Telstar scarf for me from fan/sponsor Kapsalon Waagmeester. After Polonia and Legia a third club from Poland is now in the collection : Lech Poznan, bought via Marktplaats together with scarfs from Borussia Dortmund (nr. 8), Nottingham Forest and Heerenveen.(Champions League ) Next month the world championship will be played in South-Africa, cheap scarves ( 2 euro max) can be bought in a lot of shops, I bought one at Intersport.

One of my goals is to have all the scarves of the clubs of the main European competitions in my collection.From the  premier league I was still missing Hull, Bolton and Wigan. Via www.footballheaven.net I have added Hull , Bolton and Reading to the collection. Only Wigan to go now for the Premier League. Also scarves from Standard Luik and Antwerp could be ordered here. The company is located in Scotland , most of the scarves they have are from the Irish,English and Scottish clubs.They also have a wide range of country scarves. Within three days after ordering the scarfs are in your mailbox and the prices are reasonable. Sybrand Andringa's monthly contribution contains this month 3 special FC Utrecht scarfs (45 in total now), a Maroc country scarf and an old Fortuna Vlaardingen scarf. Total number of scarves end of April : 720.      

March 3 I visited Netherlands - USA (2-1) and i bought the match scarf of this match, it is still remarkable to notice the different atmosphere during matches of the dutch national team compared to matches of the clubteams.At the football collectors fair in Houten on March 6 I was able to add some special scarves to my collection ; 2 Liverpool scarfs, 2 scarfs from Ado Den Haag,the match scarf of the Champions League Final 1996 - Juventus - Ajax and an old Go Ahead Eagles - B-side scarf.

Fan pictures of NAC Breda, Cambuur, Milan and Dortmund have been added. The pictures of Milan and Dortmund have been downloaded from the Ultras-Tifo site, amazing site and worth to visit (www.ultras-tifo.net). In total 56 pictures are now on my site.12 scarves have been added to the collection in February, I visited Ajax - Juventus with colleague and Ajax-fan Johan Willems and bought a USA country scarf, an Ajax scarf and one from Milan. My son Kevin visited Berlin and added a beautiful Hertha BSC scarf to the collection.Finally, thanks to Sybrand Andringa the yellow-blue Cambuur scarf is in the collection. He also offered a special Sparta scarf with the slogan : Sparta naar vóóóóren, that I could not refuse. 2  new F.C. Utrecht scarfs in the collection ,one of them is from 1980 issued for the 10 years jubilee. Because of the number of F.C. Utrecht scarfs (42) a seperate F.C. Utrecht- 'tab' will be created on the site the coming months.Another change will be 'rotating' pictures on the home-page.    

Fan pictures from Finland, Colombia, Australia and Serbia have been added.In total 52 pictures are now on the site. One of them is the impressive picture of the Hillsborough memorial at the Shankly gates at Anfield. In January I exchanged 20 old english and scottish scarfs with Feyenoord fan Sjon from Gouda. One of them is the friendship scarf Everton-Liverpool : we will remember 15th April,1989....the day of the Hillsborough drama.

 Some of the other scarfs are special scarfs regarding European Cup finals and FA Cup finals of Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal, Everton and Manchester United in the period 1979-1981.Thanks to Sybrand Andringa I was able to add a FC Copenhagen scarf , a F.C. Utrecht Junior tigers scarf and a very old Spain country scarf to the collection besides some scarfs of German and French clubs.Last but not least collegue Said Ait Barghane gave me a Manchester United scarf from the years he studied in Manchester.Total number of scarfs end of January 2010 : 682. 

Just before the end of the year all photo's of the scarfs (628) in my collection sofar have been uploaded. Also some fan pictures are added in the photo gallery of the site. Germany, England, Scotland, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Greece, Ecuador, Czech, Croatia,Bulgaria,Poland, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Turkey , Mexico and Italy are represented now. In december I visited two matches with my brother in law Jan Smit in England ; Manchester United - Wolverhampton and Liverpool - Wigan. A very impressive experience especially the stadium tours and club musea.

 Before the Liverpool match I bought three scarves ; the match scarf Liverpool-Wigan, a 'This is Anfield' scarf  and a friendship scarf : Liverpool-Celtic.

Two special F.C. Twente scarfs have been added by Nick Oude Munnink , one of them is a friendship scarf : F.C. Twente - Schalke 04 , cupwinners 2001. Before the end of this month F.C. Utrecht fan Sybrand Andringa will enable me to add some dutch scarves to the collection.He will focus more on collecting items of his favorite clubs.This will result in 650 scarfs at the end of 2009, a milestone.      

The number of scarves 'uploaded' is 400 , which means another 220 to go.....A few changes will be made to the site in December. The main change will be that the country scarves will be shown on one page , so no need for a 'double click'. The goal is still to have the complete collection on the site at the end of December. Looking to the sites of other dutch collectors i saw the 'Scarf Collectors Holland' scarf , a limited edition of only 10 scarves.Thanks to Wouter Snall I was able to get number 7 and I am a member now of the 'Sjaal verzamelaars - Holland'. For links to the sites of the other members see under 'Links' , country Netherlands. Besides the collectors scarf Wouter offered some other scarfs which were difficult to refuse : Arges Pitesti , FC Nitra and an Ultra scarf from Braga. Last but not least : I bought last sunday at the FC Utrecht stadium, a 'Bunnik side' scarf , the FC Utrecht Ultra's.

Have visited the football collectors fair in Houten the third of October. Not that many scarve collectors, the majority of the people were there for selling and buying Panini cards, books , programs and tickets. This was giving me the chance to buy the scarves which were for sale for reasonable prices.New scarves added to my collection bought at the fair : Beveren , Roeselare , Brussels , 1860 Munchen , Nottingham Forrest, Auxerre, Ireland, F.C. Twente , Academica and 1992 UEFA-Cup Final scarf Ajax - Torino. Two special scarves have been added to my collection this month. The Feyenoord Centennial scarf , a tribute to 'Het Legioen' , a gift from Feyenoord fan Fred Geldof and a memorial scarf for Henny van Schoonhoven(39) , 'De Tank' , old F.C. Utrecht player who died last month.This scarf is the first one of a set called 'helden van F.C. Utrecht' (Heroes of F.C. Utrecht) .At the end of october I visited with friends Wolter Meijer, Rob Porton and Peter van 't End Schalke-HSV.

Good trip , good weather,good atmosphere and fantastic match(3-3), before the match we visited museum(see picture) and fanshop where I bought a Schalke scarf in scottish style.   

Just returned from holiday. We have made a journey through Italy by train and visited Milan, Venice , Florence, Pisa, Lucca ,Rome ,Naples and Sorrento. Italy is football crazy and at every place where a lot of tourists are shopping you can buy scarves. Most of the scarves are unofficial products and cheap. In the club stores (we visited the AS Roma store)prices are much higher, not only for scarves but also for shirts. In Rome there is also a shop specialized in scarves.

 It is called STS , Soccer Team Scarves and located near the Lazio fan store, near train station Termini. Their site : www.stspoint.com. Besides scarves from different clubs from different countries they have the complete serie A , B and C in stock and a lot of country scarves. New scarves added to my collection : Nurnberg (Bundesliga complete now), Croatia, Ivory Coast , Peru, Red Star Belgrade, Osasuna, Villareal, FC Basel , Celtic-Sankt Pauli friendship scarf, Uruguay, Brescia, Lecce, Bari, Atalanta, Messina, Cagliari, Catania, Chievo, Palermo, Venezia, Livorno, Siena, Reggina, Fiorentina, Pisa, Empoli, Torino and Sorrento.