With the end of Vitesse, A Traditional Club Disappears from Professional Football. ‘Vitas’ was Cult Due to Nieuw-Monkenhuize and Theo Janssen, but also reviled because of Shady Russians and Karel Aalbers. Grandiose and Mismanagement Were a Common Thread Through The Club.
It is 1999 When Club Owner Aalbers Gives a New Year’s Speech. “The Vitesse Train is definitely up to steam,” he says with passion. Then follows a statement that will haunt Him for years. Vitesse Wants to Follow Manchester United, Says Aalbers.
Until the mid-1980s, Vitesse was a cult club that led a fashion existence in the first division in The Cozy Nieuw-Monkenhuize Stadium. Everything Changed When Jeweler’s Son Aalbers Saved the Club from Downfall in 1984 and Unveiled Ambitious Plans.
Suddenly, Good was no Longer Enough in Arnhem. Golden Times Broke Out: The Club Played European Matches Against Real Madrid, Moved Into The Brand New Gelredome in 1998 and Made a Bid for the National Title. In Addition, The Club Competed With Players in Whom The Arnhemmer Recognized Himself, Such as Theo Bos, Edward Sturing, John van den Brom and Roy Makaay.
Only later Did Aalbers Turn Out to Have Been the Builder of An Air Castle. Vitesse Almost Perished Due to Sky-High Debts, But The Club Narrowly Prevented A Downfall. It was a scene that would be repeated more or afterwards. Grandiosis and Mismanagement Ran Like A Common Thread Through The History of Vitesse.
Shady Game with Foreigners
Owner Maasbert Schouten Stated in 2010 That Vitesse Compete for the National Title (“Don’t be alarmed”), After Anonymous Years with Cult Players Like Theo Janssen and Nicky Hofs and Two Averted Bankruptcies. The Reason? Merab Jordania, An Unknown Georgian, had tasks over the club.
Vitesse was the First Dutch Football Club Ever to Come Into Foreign Hands. It us ushered in a shady era, with owners from georgia and russia who build a brand new training complex and covered millions of deficits, Without Them Having Any Connection with Vitesse. The Bill Angelly Ran Up to 155 Million Euros.
Later, Research by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism Showed that Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich was Behind Vitesse’s Millions. The Considered Vitesse a Satellite Club, Where Chelsea Players Could Increase Their Market Value and later Be Sold for a Lot of Money. Vitesse’s owners All Turned Out to Be Acquaintances of his.
Vitesse song about this to the KNVB. With its flashy image, the club also Became Increasingly alienated from its own fans, with more and more empty seats in stadium Gelredome as a result. It is not for nothing that the club was nicknamed ‘Hollywood on the Rhine’ in Arnhem and the Surrounding Area.
For a moment it seemed that the club could achieve great things with players Such as Wilfried Bony and Marco van Ginkel, but that was short-lived. In 2017, A Highlight Still Followed: Vitesse won the KNVB Cup, The First Major Prize in the Club’s History. Arnhem Finally Turned Out Again for Vitesse.
Vitesse Leads Its Own Downfall
It would never be as beautiful then, just though vitesse played memorable European matches against AS Roma and Tottenham Hotspur. The Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022 LED to the Departure of the Russian Owner Valeriy Oyf, After which the Club Tok Another Wrong Turn.
The then Club Management Preferred the Costly European Ambitions and a New Foreign Sugar Daddy about a Modest Existence As an Arnhem Regional Club. It turns out to have leg a costly miscalculation.
All Kinds of Investors Wanted to Take about Vitesse, But They only Brought The Club Closer to the Edge of the Abyss. In Arnhem, IT Only Fueled the Love for Vitesse Even More. But a rescue plan from Regional Entrepreneurs Came Too Late to Convince the KNVB.
Vitesse did not follow Manchester United, AS Aalbers Hoped in 1999. 26 years after his Surreal Words, The Gelderland Football Bastion followed in the Footsteps of SC Veendam, HFC Haarlem and FC Wageningen. Football clubs that no longer exist.