The Geldredome is sold out and that doesn’t happen often. 24,000 people want to witness a special football story on Thursday evening. AS Roma, coached by José Mourinho, comes to visit Vitesse in the eighth finals of the Conference League. Nobody expected that Vitesse would still play European so late in the season. A more than special match.
Yet it is not much about football in Arnhem. It is restless at Vitesse, to put it mildly. The influence of the war in Russia – the club has a Russian owner – has been intertwined with violence and hooliganism in recent weeks. What is going on at Vitesse?
1 How close are the ties between Vitesse and Russia?
Vitesse is one of the few clubs in Western Europe with a Russian owner. In May 2018, Valeri Ojf became a major shareholder of the club. He took over the share package from Aleksandr Chigirinsky, also a Russian. He would again have ties with Roman Abramovich – a close acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Abramovich was the first wealthy Russian to buy a football club in a Western European league: in 2003, he became the owner of Chelsea.
Ojf is important for Vitesse. Of vital importance. According to various media, he has already invested about one hundred and fifty million euros in the club through a letterbox company. He thus covers the annual losses, as is also apparent from the annual reports. If Ojf were to leave, Vitesse – now assessed as financially healthy by the KNVB football association – would suddenly be in a much worse position.
But it is not clear exactly where Ojf’s money comes from, and whether that wealth could be affected by sanctions against Russia. At the moment, Ojf is not on the sanctions lists; Vitesse assumes that the war will have “no significant consequences” financially.
Also read: International football has walked into the war sleeping
2 How did Vitesse react to the war?
The striking thing was that Vitesse initially not at all responded. After Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24, the sports world also had to relate to this new reality. That happened quite unanimously. The Champions League final was moved by the European Football Association UEFA from Saint Petersburg in Russia to Paris in France. Tournaments in Russia and Belarus – ally in the war against Ukraine – were canceled en masse. Sponsorship contracts with Gazprom, the Russian state oil company, were torn apart by sports clubs and unions. Many Russian and Belarusian athletes were no longer allowed to participate in competitions, especially not under their country’s flag. On Wednesday, ministers and state secretaries from 37 countries wrote a letter in which they supported a general boycott of (Belarus) Russian sport.
Roman Abramovich announced a week ago that he will sell Chelsea. He probably wants to protect the club from the possible consequences of economic sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs worldwide. Whether something similar threatens Vitesse is unknown. Because the club has kept very quiet after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Immediately after the invasion of the Russians, on February 24, Vitesse publicly only announced „the current developments . [te] follow”, but after that nothing followed. Vitesse did not publish a press release until Friday 4 March. “Everyone at Vitesse is deeply shocked by the appalling situation in Ukraine. Vitesse speaks out for peace and finds it heartbreaking to hear, read and see the news from Ukraine,” the club wrote. During the Eredivisie game against Sparta last weekend, various actions followed that were dominated by the ‘V of Peace’. For example, the players made the peace sign prior to the match. It is striking that Vitesse still – just like Russia – does not speak of a “war” or “invasion”, but of a “situation”.
3 Is there a link with Chelsea owner Abramovich?
Valeri Ojf is considered a friend and business partner of Abramovich, a close acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to various media, Ojf and Abramovich have known each other since their student days in Moscow. Like Abramovich, Ojf made his fortune in the Russian mining and oil and gas industries. Details about his business history are unknown. It is also unclear how great his wealth is and whether he has a direct relationship with Putin. Ojf was also a politician in Russia from 2004 to 2008 – not in the opposition.
Ojf worked for several of Abramovich’s companies, such as Sibneft (later Gazprom Neft) and gold mining company Highland Gold Mining. He was also director of Millhouse Capital, which manages Abramovich’s assets. Ojf thus fits the profile of his predecessors Alexander Chigirinsky and Merab Jordania (from Georgia), also businessmen from Abramovich’s network. As a result of those relationships, dozens of Chelsea mercenaries have come to Arnhem in the past twelve years. The most famous example is attacker Mason Mount, who broke through in the first team of the London top club after a period at Vitesse.
In 2015, the KNVB investigated the ties between Vitesse and Chelsea but found “no indications that Chelsea has a say in Vitesse’s policy”.
Also read: Ukrainian top club Shakhtar Donetsk has been on the run from violence for eight years
4 How did the Russian owner get past the KNVB’s licensing committee?
That went without any problems. Valeri Ojf took over the shares of Vitesse in May 2018. The rules that determine that the KNVB tests in advance whether someone may become the owner of a Dutch professional club only came into effect two weeks later. This means that the takeover by Ojf “has been tested less intensively”, a spokesperson for the football association said.
Under the current rules, an investor in a football club must provide clarity about the origin of his assets. You are not asked about any connections with a foreign regime. The union is also not investigating it. However, investors in football clubs, provided they buy more than a quarter of the shares, must be able to provide a ‘plausible explanation why and how [ze] invest in the professional football organization”. It is not known why Ojf has chosen Vitesse to spend millions.
Since the new rules apply to owners, the KNVB has rejected one takeover. That was in 2019, when Kakhi Jordania, the son of former Vitesse owner Merab Jordania, wanted to take over first divisionist FC Den Bosch. He could not explain clearly what he earned his money with.
5 What else is going on in Arnhem?
The Russian owner is not the only concern. The match against Sparta was halted in stoppage time last weekend after a supporter entered the field, a beer mug was thrown at the Sparta goalkeeper and fireworks exploded near a cameraman. Vitesse was 1-0 behind at that time. The last minutes have yet to be played, the KNVB announced this week. It was not the first incident around Vitesse this year. According to Vitesse, a drunk sponsor aggressively entered the dressing room during the half-time of a match against PSV. In addition, there were heavy riots around the derby against NEC in Nijmegen†