Coach of Dutch national women's soccer team fires lesbian couple

By Anna McFaith on Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 13:42

In this week’s Lesbian News Snatch, Maxime reported on the recent firing of two players of the Dutch national women’s soccer team. Dyanne Bito and Claudia van den Heiligenberg had been with the national team for years (nine and four, respectively) and have been in a relationship with one another for at least a year and a half.

The team’s coach, Vera Pauw, has stated that, although Heiligenberg’s performance had been slipping, she would still have had to cut her and Bito from the line-up if her performance had been stellar. Pauw was hesitant to give a clear reason for her actions and only spoke of ‘private affairs’. It is the first time Pauw has made the difficult decision to remove one or more players from her team.

Claudia van den Heiligenberg and Vera Pauw
Image courtesy of the KNVB

Now, no one involved has stated that the dismissal of the two women is related to their relationship. While coaches tend to be hesitant towards relationships in teams, the two have been dating for a long time, so if this is a reaction to them being together, it comes at a rather late date.

On the other hand, if the dismissal is related to their relationship, it is a rather big step back for the Dutch sports world. Especially in (Dutch) women’s soccer, it’s not a secret that a lot of the players are either bisexual or gay.

Dyanne Bitto
Image courtesy of the KNVB

Nothing is set in stone at this point. The women are out of the line-up, but there is still a chance they will play for the Dutch national team again in the future. The decision can be postponed for a while, because the first action the Dutch team sees will be not be until March of next year.

EurOut will keep you updated on the developments concerning this rather unorthodox chain of events.

[Update: Both Van den Heiligenberg and Pauw responded on OnsOranje.nl, saying rumours that it has anything to do with the women's relationship are nonsense, but they won't discuss the details behind the decision.]