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Traditional club threatens to fall into amateur football
05/23/2025 – 11:00 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The former Dutch cup winner Vitesse Arnheim is probably the country’s largest crisis club. Now the deep case threatens.
The next low for Vitesse Arnheim: The license commission of the Dutch Football Association KNVB has withdrawn the professional license for the second time within a year. The association again does not meet the prescribed requirements. Vitesse can make an appeal against the decision – but the judgment brings the traditional club to the edge of the end. A bitter news for Arnheim, which still won the trophy in the 2016/17 season and is in the eternal table of the Eredivisie in twelve.
Last year, the club had already been withdrawn from the American Coley Parry for irregularities around irregularities around a planned takeover. Only after a lengthy appeal procedure and multiple extension of the deadline could the continued existence be secured in early August 2024. Now the next chapter is followed: The new owner group of five international investors could not clear up the concerns of the KNVB.
The current shareholders – including the German Timo Braasch and Leon Müller – each hold less than 25 percent. A construct that was deliberately chosen to avoid formal approval processes. Managing Director Braasch had probably admitted this. In addition, there is a suspicion that Parry continues to influence – a violation of the editions of the license commission.
The association has long since felt the consequences. After an unprecedented point deduction of 39 points, Vitesse landed in the last place of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie, the second Dutch league. Now the professional status is also at stake. Nevertheless, there are still two options for the association: appeal – a step that Vitesse has planned – and, if necessary, to go to court.
The latest decision does not mean the end of the club, but it brings the traditional Dutch club as close to the crash into amateur football.