Traditional association in the crisis
This club was with nothing – then came a judgment
12.09.2025 – 2:08 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
This threatened a traditional club from the Netherlands. But now Vitesse Arnheim is drawing new hope – albeit under the most difficult conditions.
It is the gradual return of Vitesse Arnheim to professional football. When the traditional Dutch club starts the new season of the 2nd league on Friday evening against Jong Az Alkmaar, there is a team on the field that was still in front of the sporty in mid -July.
At that time, a district court had confirmed the sports court decisions against the second division club. Arnheim had already been sentenced to an 18-point deduction in 2024 for serious violations of the license regulations and relegated to the 2nd division for the first time in 35 years. In the second division season, several point deductions and the relegation were followed. This finally resulted in the withdrawal of the license.
The U -turn only came at the beginning of September: the former cup winner obtained a suspension of the licensee withdrawal in the urgent procedure. “This suspension means that the club can start the season 2025/2026 in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie (the Dutch 2nd league, editor’s note),” said the club. Fans celebrated the decision in the city center.
“This judgment gives us relief and perspective. We are pleased that the court has recognized the seriousness of the situation and suspended the decisions,” said Michel Schaay, chairman of the Vitesse Symptaneous. Then it had to go quickly: At the time of the judgment, Arnheim only had nine players in the squad – and suddenly the first game of the season in front of the chest. Among other things, there was not a single goalkeeper in the squad.
Before the game against Alkmaar, the club hurriedly signed six newcomers, including with goalkeeper Maximilian Brüll (until the end of August with the second team of Borussia Mönchengladbach), midfielder Marco Schikora (most recently at SV Sandhausen), the former Bremen talent Yuval Ranon and the former Regensburg Elias Huth.
Because the transfer window closed on September 1st, Vitesse had no choice but to raise his own young players to the professionals and to hire clubless professionals. In total, the Vitesse squad now comprises 17 professionals.
Already in July the German coach Rüdiger Rehm, who had only taken over the job in June, had practiced in optimism: “Of course we had to swallow briefly, but our gaze goes ahead,” said Rehm at Sport1 about the at that time. “I haven’t regretted anything since I signed.”