The astonishingly rapid demise of Vitesse

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Until very recently, Vitesse were one of the oldest and biggest clubs in the Netherlands, with a very nice stadium (Gelredome) and decent fanbase. They got through to the last 16 of the Europa Conference League at recently 2022, beating Spurs in the Group stage and getting knocked out narrowly by the eventual winners, Roma.

But because of multiple points deductions over the last couple of seasons due continuous breaches of financial and ownership transparency regulations, they suffered back-to-back relegations to the Tweede Divisie (3rd tier) at the end of last season. Despite their numerous points deductions, their breaches of the regulations continued last season, and in June the KNVB (Dutch FA) finally ran out of patience with them and revoked their professional license, which they then appealed and lost. Their last throw of the device was to take the KNVB to court, and that hearing was held today. The judge will give his judgement tomorrow afternoon, but from the reports I've been reading it seems pretty clear that the KNVB followed due process and acted within their jurisdiction, so it seems very likely they will lose the lawsuit as well. If so, they will cease to exist at 3pm CET.

When I lived in Nijmegen I had a season ticket for the local team NEC, who are the biggest and fiercest rivals of Vitesse, based only 20km away in Arnhem. The majority of the fans of both clubs literally despise each other with a passion. So as you can imagine, very few tears are being shed down Nijmegen way at the minute. Quite the opposite, they're of course lapping it up. Personally though, I can't really take pleasure in seeing the impending demise of another erstwhile proud and established football club. Sad! 

 

 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

As expected, the judge has ruled in favour of KNVB in the lawsuit that Vitesse raised against them. No doubt at some point a phoenix club will be created and they'll gradually work their way back up the league pyramid, just like Rangers did. 

[vikingTON]

Vitesse seemed to be using a financially doped 'ambishun' model for years, before finally placing themselves beneath Chelsea's yoke under Abramovich. They're no bigger than any other provincial clubs (Groningen, or indeed NEC) who were directly harmed by their Dundee-esque delusions of grandeur.

Good riddance. 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

3 hours ago, vikingTON said:

Vitesse seemed to be using a financially doped 'ambishun' model for years, before finally placing themselves beneath Chelsea's yoke under Abramovich. They're no bigger than any other provincial clubs (Groningen, or indeed NEC) who were directly harmed by their Dundee-esque delusions of grandeur.

Good riddance. 

Oh yeah, for sure, there has been a lot of decidedly questionable stuff going on there since the Russians became involved in 2018, and I suppose most of their supporters were happy to look the other way, so aye, to some extent I agree with you. But there were also a section of their supporters who were opposed to them from day one, long before things really started to go tits up 2022 after the owner sold-up following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, so I do have some sympathy for them.

I would say though that Vitesse were a bigger club than NEC. When I lived there their average attendance was around 18,000, which was about double that of NEC's 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

On checking more recent attendances from season 2023-24, Vitesse's last season in the Eredivise, it seems that the gap between them and NEC has  closed somewhat since I left....