Within the investor group Friends of Feyenoord (VvF), a 48.7 percent shareholder in the Feyenoord football club, there is great dissatisfaction with the performance of Toon van Bodegom, president of the club’s supervisory board. The group of entrepreneurs, who saved the club from financial ruin in 2010, spoke out against his reappointment at the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders last Thursday. Those involved disagree NRC.
Van Bodegom will nevertheless run for a second term of four years. He was reappointed with a minimum mandate through the support of majority shareholder Stichting Continuïteit, which manages 50.1 percent of the shares and monitors the club culture. Feyenoord has not yet made public his reappointment because the minutes of the meeting have yet to be adopted, a spokesperson says.
The Friends of Feyenoord – influential, including two seats on the supervisory board – have little faith in Van Bodegom, a 58-year-old entrepreneur who has been chairman of the supervisory board since March 2019. Although things are going well under the leadership of coach Arne Slot – Feyenoord is the leader in the Eredivisie – there are concerns about finances, the future of the stadium and the administrative organization of the club.
Under Van Bodegom, five directors have left in four years, under pressure or otherwise: technical directors Martin van Geel and Frank Arnesen, general directors Jan de Jong and Mark Koevermans and recently commercial director Joris van Dijk.
Letter with fourteen points
On 23 January, the VvF sent a four-page letter to the Supervisory Board, in which Van Bodegom is implicitly criticized in fourteen points. They are mainly questions about what has not been achieved in the past four years and what his role has been in this.
For example, raising capital was an “important priority” when he took office in 2019, says the letter, which is in the hands of NRC. The ‘Friends’ wonder which potential investors have been approached by Van Bodegom, why it was not possible to find capital and what initiatives can still be expected in this area.
“We are working on something,” Van Bodegom said in July 2019 The Telegraph, referring to a potential investor. “Give us a minute.” So far, no transaction with an investor has occurred.
There are concerns about equity. In the season that Van Bodegom started, that amounted to 25.6 million euros, of which only 1 million is left. From the letter: “What has been the contribution of the current chairman to this decline, or to prevent it?”
Also read this profile of Toon van Bodegom (January 2020): Out of nowhere the most powerful man in Feyenoord
There are many questions about his line-up in Feyenoord City, the plan for a new stadium from which the club withdrew in 2022 after about seven years of preparation because it turned out to be financially unfeasible. “How seriously has the supervisory board, under the leadership of the current chairman, taken the many warnings that this would prove to be an unfeasible project?” Van Bodegom has supported the proponents of new construction for too long, say those involved.
The stadium company, which has a debt of more than 36 million euros, has spent almost 33 million euros on plans for a new stadium in the last six years. Meanwhile, large-scale maintenance in De Kuip is lagging behind – the stadium and club (the tenant) are now drawing up a plan to improve this. From the letter: “What gives the supervisory board and its current chairman the impression that after the failure of this project they still have sufficient support for a credible policy in this regard?”
A ‘special responsibility’ for the chairman, the letter states, is to ensure ‘connection’ between the many bodies in the often divided ‘Feyenoord family’. Bodegom is accused of not being visible enough, they hardly ever see him at the VvF. Little has come of the unification of Feyenoord – stadium, club, amateur branch and supporters – that has been desired for some time.
summary judgment
The VvF played an important role in Feyenoord’s financial and sporting recovery. About thirty entrepreneurs invested 32.6 million euros in 2010 in the impoverished club, in exchange they received 49 percent of the shares. Debts could be paid off. In 2018 and 2019 – Feyenoord was healthy again – the club buys back shares and share premium for the first time for 4.6 million euros.
Van Bodegom wants to buy out the VvF completely from his appointment, which several Friends are also open to. But Feyenoord does not have that money. In fact, if Feyenoord needs capital again, the Friends will buy back the partly sold shares in February 2022 – 3.9 million euros according to the annual report. Feyenoord uses that money to buy Swedish attacker Patrik Walemark, among others.
The fact that the Friends are against Van Bodegom’s reappointment has sharpened the already difficult relationships in the club management. Illustrative was a court case last Tuesday, which revolved around ethical management of the third and smallest shareholder (1.16 percent): the Supporters Support Feyenoord foundation. Two directors representing the fans demanded the suspension of two co-directors who are on behalf of the club, Dick van Well and Gérard Moussault. This is because the appointment of general director Dennis te Kloese as director of the foundation – as successor to the departed Koevermans – would have been unlawful, according to the plaintiffs.
It led to the curious situation that the entire Feyenoord management – Te Kloese and financial director Pieter Smorenburg – was in the Rotterdam court last week in the last hours of the transfer window. The plaintiffs hoped to get a majority in the foundation through a suspension and thus be able to vote against Van Bodegom’s reappointment two days later, although their 1.16 percent had made no difference. But the judge ruled against them. Subsequent proceedings may follow.
Decisive in the reappointment of Van Bodegom is the narrow majority of the largest shareholder, Stichting Continuïteit (Stico). This body consists of five directors, including two representatives of the VvF. They were against. Nevertheless, Stico chairman Ivo Opstelten says when asked that Van Bodegom has been reappointed “with great conviction”.
Asked for a response, Van Bodegom refers to Feyenoord’s spokesperson. He does say: “A mandate has been given, I’m just going to do it.”