The revocation of Vitesse’s professional license on Thursday was not a surprise. The club had survived all storms until now, but the KNVB’s appeals committee also showed no leniency. New mismanagement cost the Arnhem club its head. An analysis.
It was sometime in the spring of 2024. Vitesse was on the verge of collapse after a disastrous year in sporting, financial, and administrative terms. The new director, Edwin Reijntjes, already felt the storm brewing. The club might cease to exist after all the skeletons that had come out of the closet.
And so, Reijntjes went begging and pleading to the KNVB’s licensing committee, which checks whether all professional clubs comply with KNVB rules, with the request to keep Vitesse alive. Initially, that did not happen. But after a successful appeal, the club was allowed to continue playing professional football.
Time and again, Vitesse received extensions from the licensing committee and the KNVB’s appeals committee to solve the problems. It could only be seen as a gesture from the football association to keep the second oldest professional club in the Netherlands (since 1892) afloat.
One thing the KNVB committees made clear to Vitesse: this was the very last chance. The time for circumventing and misleading had to be truly over at the club, also known in Arnhem and the surrounding area as ‘Hollywood on the Rhine’. Vitesse, which had previously been in a bad light due to Russian ownership, promised to improve.
But Vitesse and Reijntjes turned a deaf ear to the KNVB’s final warning. While the club was polishing its tarnished image in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie thanks to the overwhelming support of the fans despite being in last place, Vitesse relapsed into old habits in the boardroom. The fine promises to the KNVB proved to be worthless.
Vitesse circumvented the KNVB again
Vitesse came up with takeover candidate Guus Franke, but he turned out to have withheld part of the contract with American creditor Coley Parry. Vitesse knew nothing about it, but was responsible for it. It was a first dent in the relationship with the KNVB.
The low point was yet to come. Out of nowhere, Vitesse came up with five unknown foreigners at the beginning of this year who were going to take over the club. Reijntjes claimed that the club had been saved, but it soon became clear that this had set the stage for its downfall.
The new owners circumvented an approval procedure from the KNVB by each taking less than 25 percent of the shares. They were also not thoroughly investigated by Vitesse, even though the club had promised this to the KNVB.
The members of Vitesse’s supervisory board, who oversee the management, were suddenly removed from their positions in the run-up to the takeover. It all fueled the growing distrust in Zeist, especially when the new owners submitted the contract with Parry partly blacked out to the KNVB.
But that was not the worst part. The licensing committee suspected that Parry was behind the foreign takeover, while this was strictly forbidden by the committee members. Hard evidence was lacking, but one of the five foreign owners was an old classmate of Parry.
‘Persistent pattern at Vitesse’
In fact, Vitesse’s fate was already sealed at that point. “Vitesse has continued to circumvent and undermine the licensing system,” the licensing committee wrote earlier this month in a devastating statement when Vitesse’s professional license was revoked.
The KNVB’s appeals committee added to that on Thursday. “The appeals committee concludes that there is a multi-year pattern of deception, circumvention and undermining of the licensing system and a lack of transparency. In the opinion of the appeals committee, this pattern has proven to be structural, serious and persistent.”
Vitesse tried to save the furniture in recent weeks with a takeover by regional investors. The ultimate rescue attempt could count on a lot of sympathy in Arnhem and the surrounding area, but the KNVB judges that those financiers have not done their homework properly either.
It all fits in with Vitesse’s decline. The mayor of Arnhem, Ahmed Marcouch, said on Thursday that it is “unimaginable” that the club is not allowed to play professional football by the KNVB. He thus played, as often, on the emotions of the fans, with which Vitesse also tried to convince the KNVB’s appeals committee.
Of course, Vitesse is a household name for thousands of Arnhem residents. But they will probably no longer have a club, not thanks to the KNVB, but due to the structural mismanagement of their own directors. This will cause a Gelderland stronghold, still the winner of the KNVB Cup in 2017, to fall after 133 years. Only the court can save Vitesse.
Court last resort for Vitesse
Vitesse can only obtain a professional license, which is necessary to be able to play professional football, from the court. The club expects to start a lawsuit. It is not yet clear when a possible summary proceedings of Vitesse will serve.
The civil court will only look at whether the KNVB has come to a judgment in a careful manner. There will have to be clarity soon: the new season in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie starts next Friday.