Volkskrant: racism, sexism and arrogant behavior reign at NOS Sport

Most of them only dare to tell their story anonymously, but the newspaper got it hear the same examples in interviews. Celebrities such as Tom Egbers and Jack van Gelder are regularly quoted. It is also becoming clear that the editors of NOS Sport have been aware of the issues for years, but have barely addressed them.

Aïcha Marghadi, animator at Studio Sport between 2010 and 2012, is the only one who dares to tell her story by name. She recounts, among other things, how she was silenced and scolded at the editorial office. “A colleague told me I was an experiment. A Moroccan excuse.”

“She had no chance. She was both a woman and someone of color and someone from the outside,” describes an anonymous colleague.

Outside Editor-in-Chief

The working atmosphere is said to be “toxic”. This becomes painfully clear, for example, when an editor outside the sportswriters is invited to attend the 2012 European Football Championship. He hears Jack van Gelder refer to a female colleague as “that bitch”, in an e e-mail to colleagues. the presenter uses the words “that pussy”. Van Gelder does not want the female colleague in question to go to the European Championship.

The editor draws his conclusions and decides not to take the job. In the end, Van Gelder just went to the European Championships and succeeded: the female colleague was not allowed to come.

Tom Egbers’ name also figures prominently in the Volkskrant investigation. He admits to having an affair with a 22-year-old NOS Sport trainee for a short time in 2005. After the affair ended, according to the newspaper, the situation escalated and Egbers began to bully the woman.

cut throat

In front of several colleagues, he called her “the axis of evil”, “the poison” and “the serpent”. Also, when she passed, he waved his hand as if he was slitting someone’s throat.

The editors of NOS Sport previously announced that they would be stepping down in phases. In reaction to de Volkskrant, the editors called the “overall picture painful”. She indicates that there was indeed action behind the scenes. But not always: “Unfortunately, not all of the sounds that emerge here have reached us. We take that to heart.”