Big party on the Korenmarkt in Arnhem. Supporters embrace each other, sing club songs and torches raise the air. It is Saturday evening, 3 August 2024, a week before the first league match against Telstar.
After a summer full of uncertainty, private support initiatives and hastily screwed together rescue plans, Vitesse convinced the appeal committee of the KNVB at the last minute: the decision to withdraw the professional license is undone. The club has been saved, from the hands of Russian oligarchs and an American investor on whom she never really got a grip. The fact that Vitesse has been relegated for the first time in 35 years is a side issue for supporters. They look forward to a new season, a new Vitesse.
Now, a year and countless fairly inimitable plot twists later, remains of disillusion, confusion and disbelief. Earlier this month, Vitesse again lost its professional license, on Thursday evening the appeals committee ruled in hard terms that that decision is not being reversed. Final this time, it seems.
Vitesse is blamed for a “multi -year pattern of deception, bypassing and undermining the licensing system.” That actually started in 2010, when Vitesse became the first Dutch club to come into foreign hands. The Georgian businessman Merab Jordania bought Vitesse from the local entrepreneur Maasbert Schouten at the time and offered supporters a national championship within three years.
What he did not tell is that the millions of investments that were needed for this through secret financial constructions came from Roman Abramovich, the Russian Oligarch and then Chelsea owner, who maintains close ties with the Kremlin. Abramovich remained secretly the financier of Vitesse in the background, even after Jordania had sold his shares to the Russian Alexander Tsjigirinski. In turn, the club once again sold the club to the Valeriy Oyf, also Russian and also a businessman from the Abramovich network.
Russian invasion
The championships did not come (once Vitesse won the cup), but the Arnhem club in the hunt for sporting success built a debt of 150 million euros with his Russian owner. It became an acute problem when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and Abramovich ended up on Western sanction lists.
The money that OYF put in Vitesse, according to research by the British journalistic research platform Pile and The Guardian In collaboration with NRC,, ” Fidelity and Het Financieele Dagbladthrough trust companies, almost completely came from the billionaire who had been forced to give up his Chelsea shares.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the misery for Vitesse started. Oyf wanted to get rid of his shares and even put his claim on the club, only that didn’t just happen. Huisbank ING and the Ministry of Economic Affairs first searched for clarification about the Russian money that had flowed by the club for years, the accountant refused to approve the annual accounts and the license committee demanded clarity about the origin of Coley Parry’s assets, the American venture in Arnhem to take over the club.
But transparency, no matter how often in word confessed, could or did not want to force the various directors and interim directors of Vitesse to the club’s lenders. And so the Russian files dragged on and the license committee rejected the takeover by Parry after months of investigation, because she said she could not determine how wealthy his investment company (Common Group) was and where the financing came from. In the meantime, the American had built up a claim of more than 15 million euros on Vitesse – provided loans to cover deficits – with the guarantee that it would be converted into shares in the event of non -payment.
For example, Vitesse headed for bankruptcy last summer. The KNVB withdrew the professional license, after the club had previously been deducted 18 points and had been relegated. And Vitesse did not have the income to satisfy his debts, nor the gaps in the budget.
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The fact that the club survived, among other things, thanked them to the Vitesse Foundation forever, which was founded to temporarily take over the shares from OYF with the approval of the license committee and, in anticipation of a new owner, and thus put an end to the Russian influence. But especially to a club of local entrepreneurs, who was willing to guarantee millions of millions of to cover the budget shortage.
That guarantee was crucial, because the intended Savior of the club, entrepreneur Guus Franke, which was established in Switzerland, was not yet approved by the License Committee. And parry? Despite his millions of claim, he no longer had any control at Vitesse, the club certainly promised. “We can finally play football again,” said interim director Edwin Reijntjes. “We are slowly becoming a football club again.”
Side letter
In the euphoria of the moment is lost that the license committee will already start a warning tone. She announces a “stricter investigation” to Guus Franke, because Vitesse has given insufficient clarity about “the full interests of the intended shareholder and the origin of his assets”. Barely four months later, the brittle trust that was built between Vitesse and the KNVB evaporated. De Telegraaf reveals that Franke and Parry have made a secret appointment, recorded in one side letterwho may still influence the American through a so -called pledge on the shares within the club.
Vitesse director Reijntjes says he has been robbed by the news, Franke withdraws. But in the months that follow, the breach of trust only gets bigger. First, Vitesse draws a procedure that was established at the Enterprise Chamber in the summer, with the result that two independent commissioners lose their position. Argument: too expensive. Moments later, Vitesse unexpectedly announces the arrival of five new, foreign owners, of whom there has been one in class At Coley Parry.
The Fanshop of Vitesse
Photo Dieuwertje Bravenboer
The German-American-Italian company has taken over the million claim from Parry and converted it into shares is the story. Moreover, they all have an interest that is smaller than 25 percent, so according to the KNVB regulations they do not have to be subjected to an investigation by the license committee.
Perhaps smartly thought, but the license committee is not satisfied with it. On the contrary, she feels insulted and cheated after everything that happened. The promises of get well soon, especially when it becomes clear that the five and Parry do not want to give full openness about the financial agreements made with regard to the outstanding debt. “After the firm commitments of Vitesse in the summer of 2024, when the club also threatened to lose the license, the club continued to circumvent and evade the licensing system,” concludes the license committee in May of this year.
Reijntjes is already gone, just as the intended new owners give it up in June. A group of regional entrepreneurs (Sterkholders Vitesse Arnhem) throws up as rescuers of the club. But what a takeover should look like, remains unclear. Moreover, for the KNVB, it is no longer just about money and the search for a workable solution, the confidence has to restore. And that is no longer possible.
The Appeals Committee of the KNVB is aware of the great impact that the decision has on “the interests of supporters, employees, the region and other stakeholders of Vitesse,” she writes on Thursday evening. But according to the football association, this measure is necessary to protect “the credibility of the licensing system”. Vitesse says he is ‘defeated’ through the website through the news.
It is not yet over yet. Vitesse probably goes to the civil court to challenge the punishment, but it only tests whether the trial has expired, not substantively. If that route does not yield anything, Arnhem will lose his 133 -year -old professional club.