“I am still stunned,” says Leroy, a day after the license of his beloved Vitesse was finally withdrawn. “If it really is, then that’s a slap in your face.”
Vitesse is just alive
The Alkmaarse Leroy has been the season ticket holder of the club from Arnhem for years. His love for the team once started with a few favorite players from his childhood: Lasse Nilsson, Claudemir and Theo Janssen. They all played in the yellow-black. The spark only really skipped when he went with AZ to a competition in the Gelredome.
Since then he has been behind the club in good and bad times. Even when the results were disappointing, the finances collapsed and the relegation ghost became reality. “I still had hope it would be fine,” he says. “I extended my season card last month.”
It was last year that Vitesse seemed alive and kicking again, according to Leroy. The tires with controversial investors were broken, local entrepreneurs reported as potential lenders and the sale of season tickets reached a record high.
“And we were finally out of foreign hands again,” he emphasizes. Leroy also collect money himself To save his club from the abyss.
But the judgment of the KNVB came inexorably on Thursday. According to the committee members, the club from the Kitchen Champion Division has years of deception, bypassing and undermining the licensing system.
Leroy also understands where the union comes from. “But if you look at the history of the club, the thousands of supporters, the social role. Where is the sympathy?”
Tear left for Vitesse
Leroy has been following the club closely for more than fifteen years. Last season he visited twenty games. Soon, only the memories will remain. To victories, such as the historic cup win in 2017 against AZ, the club from his hometown. “A magical day. The first prize we ever won,” he says. “And now the only one.”
And to European adventures. Such as the away match against Stade Rennes in the Conference League, where Vitesse was behind, but cleverly recovery and hibernation in Europe secured. Leroy traveled along, with unknown fellow fans then. “That was a big party,” he recalls. “Then you quickly become friends.”
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