KNVB wants to take the professional license from Vitesse

Voetbalbond KNVB wants to withdraw the professional license of the Arnhem football club Vitesse by effect from the coming season. The club and the union have that announced on Friday. According to the KNVB, the Arnhem club has not met mutual agreements about the license. Without a professional license, Vitesse would no longer participate in professional football.

According to the KNVB, Vitesse made a number of commitments last summer that are not fulfilled now. For example, members of the Supervisory Board of Vitesse ‘at a crucial moment’ were fired and then not replaced. The club also founded an independent foundation that had to reduce risks on money laundering, among other things. But according to the Football Association, this foundation was able to do its work ‘not properly’, certainly not after being lifted halfway through the season.

During the previous football season, Vitesse also almost lost the license, because the club, among other things had not submitted and had held documents behind. Vitesse appealed and received penalty points instead. Because of that loss of points, Vitesse relegated to the first division.

Bankruptcy and takeover

At the beginning of this year Vitesse was taken over By a group of investors who save the club from a bankruptcy. At that time, the club made ‘firm commitments’, including in the field of control of the new owners. Nevertheless, the club continued with « circumventing and evading the licensing system, » said the KNVB.

In a first reaction says the club: « The intended decision has nearly forty pages. Naturally, intensive study and critical reflection is necessary before the club can respond to content. » Vitesse emphasizes that the decision of the KNVB is not yet final, and that the club is talking to the union.

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