Vitesse is appealing the revocation of its professional license. The Arnhem club confirmed this to NU.nl on Friday. Vitesse will lose its license starting today (Friday, July 11).
The KNVB’s licensing committee decided to revoke Vitesse’s license “because the club systematically and over a longer period circumvents and undermines the licensing system,” according to a press release on Thursday.
Vitesse already stated then that it was considering an appeal and is now definitively going to the appeals committee. The club did this last year as well, successfully. Vitesse was proven right and was allowed to play in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie after a turbulent summer.
The problems at Vitesse are now even greater than last year, when the club only had financial problems. The licensing committee of the KNVB, which monitors the 34 Dutch professional clubs, mainly accuses Vitesse of not adhering to a number of important agreements.
Whether a new escape is in store for the second oldest club in the Netherlands should become clear in the coming weeks. It is not yet clear when the case will be heard. In the most extreme case, Vitesse can still go to the civil court.
Time is running out for Vitesse
Time is starting to run out for Vitesse, because the new Keuken Kampioen Divisie season starts on August 8. There must be clarity before then. Meanwhile, the selection under the leadership of the new coach Rüdiger Rehm has started the preparation.
Vitesse will start the season with -12 points anyway. The club lost an earlier appeal against the licensing committee of the KNVB. Vitesse already received that penalty in April, because not all information about the foreign takeover was shared with the KNVB at that time.
The German interim director Timo Braasch disagreed and filed an appeal. That decision cost Vitesse dearly, because by rejecting the appeal, the penalty did not apply to the past season, but to a possible new season.