KNVB and UEFA are considering the role of former Chelsea boss Roman Abramovich at Vitesse | Dutch football

Abramovich is said to have secretly invested at least 117 million euros in Vitesse since 2010. This is evident from the so-called oligarch files, documents with leaked data from Cyprus. The revelation comes from the English newspaper The Guardian with the help of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Vitesse and Chelsea have never met in a European context. Both Vitesse and Chelsea repeatedly denied that oil and gas billionaire Abramovich was involved in financing the Dutch club. UEFA will nevertheless consider the construction.

The KNVB does that too. “If it turns out that the licensing committee has been wrongly or incorrectly informed, sanctions can still be imposed,” says a spokesman for the KNVB.

The Football Association takes the matter seriously. “If that’s right The Guardian writes, then our regulations have been violated and the integrity of the professional football competitions has been compromised. Not only do we regret this, we also take it seriously.”

Vitesse’s connection with Chelsea was immediately suggested in 2010. At that time, the takeover of the Arnhem club was playing. Merab Jordania was put forward. On paper, Abramovich was never a shareholder or owner of Vitesse.

The KNVB investigated the connection twice. But the union found nothing that was contrary to the rules and eventually concluded that the Russian oligarch had no administrative influence on the Dutch premier league player.

“The investigations have been requested by independent parties,” explains the spokesman for the KNVB. “Once on the initiative of the professional football board. Based on public information. And once at the instigation of the license commission. Based on information and documents supplied by Vitesse. Those investigations focused on the connection between Chelsea and Vitesse. No such relationship could be established. It is important that the KNVB and the licensing committee are not investigative authorities with associated powers.”

Vitesse also refers to the ‘independent investigations’ in a response. The club states that it never knew about payments from Abramovich. The Eredivisionist has ‘fully’ cooperated with the investigations. ‘And they have not brought any irregularities to light.’

The KNVB cannot do anything with the revelations in England alone. The oligarch papers are not owned by the union. But ‘Zeist’ does point to the regulations. “At the time of the takeover in 2010, but also in the period following the takeover, it was not allowed to be a shareholder of a Dutch professional club and another, whether or not foreign, professional football organization”, explains the KNVB spokesperson.

Vitesse could therefore still get into major problems.

The Arnhem club is against appearances. In April 2014, Jordania claimed that Chelsea was indeed involved with Vitesse. He expressed his anger after the Arnhem club was not made strong enough for the national title and failed to qualify for the Champions League. He said that ‘London didn’t want that’. Jordania later retracted the comments. In Arnhem, his statements were dismissed as nonsense.

After Jordania, on paper, Alexander Tsjigirinsky and Valeri Oyf, both friends of Abramovich, became owners of Vitesse. The Gelderland premier divisionist has received numerous talents from the Chelsea stable on a rental basis over the years. They had to mature further in the Netherlands. For example, stars such as Nemanja Matic, the recently deceased Christian Atsu and Mason Mount came out for the Arnhem club.

According to the now leaked documents, Abramovich would have provided the financing for years. Payments were made through offshore companies from countries such as Belize and the Virgin Islands. That is outdated until 2015. This was a huge investment for Vitesse, the club’s total turnover in 2014-2015 was only 14 million euros.

Vitesse states that Tsjigirinsky, as the owner, arranged the financing. The Russian was ‘the only interested party’ in this. The Arnhem club had ‘no knowledge of the way in which this company was financed. Vitesse itself has not had any loan agreements.’

Vitesse also states that a third party, such as Abramovich, has never had control over the club. “It was concluded at the time that Vitesse always correctly and fully informed the parties about ownership and the legal structure.”

Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 after becoming a billionaire trading oil and gas in Russia. He invested 2 billion in the London club. In addition to national titles in England, this resulted in two final victories in the Champions League. Abramovich was forced to sell Chelsea last year. The oligarch was put on the international sanctions list after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. He would maintain close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vitesse won a major prize once under Russian rule. The club won the KNVB Cup in 2017. In addition, the Arnhem premier divisionist came out several times in Europe.