Just four years after finishing fourth in the Eredivisie, Vitesse Arnhem are on the verge of bankruptcy after years of wrangling over the club’s ownership
It seemed as though the first shafts of light were finally visible. On 29 January, a group of five shareholders agreed to purchase Vitesse, saving the club from the financial purgatory it had been plunged into following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent opacity surrounding the club’s ownership. Though they were mired bottom of the Eerste Divisie, Dutch football’s second tier, on -8 points, Vitesse’s fans were buoyant in the winter sunshine as they visited Excelsior Rotterdam the weekend after the takeover. A chorus of “I’ll keep going my whole life, for our club which will keep existing’’ sounded from the away end following Vitesse’s surprise 3-1 win; the tunnel’s final bend was about to be rounded.
Three months later, little of that optimism remains in Arnhem. Vitesse, already deducted 27 points by the KNVB (Dutch Football Association) in the autumn, have been hit with two further points deductions– amounting to a loss of 12 points– this springtime, which left the club with just 2 points to their name ahead of their final match of the season against FC Den Bosch. More concerning still have been the allegations that Coley Parry, an American investor whose earlier takeover bid had been rejected by the KNVB, might still have a role behind the scenes of the new ownership group, despite Parry’s non-involvement being one of the conditions stipulated by the KNVB.
The new shareholders have done little to assuage concerns, not once having spoken to the press since their purchase was announced. The investors (3 Americans and 2 Germans, all men in their 30s or 40s) only introduced themselves to supporters by means of a video placed on the club’s Youtube channel on Friday– 100 days after the takeover was confirmed. The fear persists that Vitesse may be declared bankrupt and lose their playing licence if clarity is not provided over the source of the new shareholder group’s funds, which would effectively spell the end of the 133-year-old club’s existence in the Dutch professional ranks.
Supporters thus boarded the bus or hopped on their bicycle on Friday evening not knowing if it was the final time they would ever trek to watch Vitesse at the Gelredome, a retractable-roof stadium built for Euro 2000 which resembles an aircraft hanger from the outside. The surface atmosphere was not one of gloom: it was a glorious May day, the Arnhem sky thick with blue, cans of Heineken being eagerly drained on the bus ride to the ground. About an hour before kick-off, a large glut of black-clad, sunglass-wearing ultras marched in tandem towards the Theo Bos stand, where the club’s most fanatic supporters are housed. But when I spoke to Willem and Suzan, two middle-aged supporters who have been attending Vitesse matches since childhood, they described the possibility that their beloved club might disappear as a ‘rotten feeling’ and said it was ‘unimaginable’ that the game against Den Bosch might be their final chance to watch the Geel-zwarten.
Vitesse’s fortunes couldn’t have been different at the beginning of the decade. In the 2020/21 season, Vitesse qualified for Europe by finishing fourth in the Eredivisie– above Feyenoord– and reached the KNVB Cup final, losing to Ajax; the following campaign, they made the Round of 16 in the UEFA Conference League, beating Tottenham at the Gelredome in the group stage. Vitesse were glowingly profiled in a January 2021 Guardian article, in which then-Technical Director Johannes Spors explained his method of running the ‘upwardly mobile’ Arnhem club.
Vitesse’s joint-top scorer that season was Armando Broja, one of 29 players dispatched to Arnhem on loan from Chelsea over an 11-year period, a near-umbilical link which led some to derisively label Vitesse ‘Chelsea B’. The cord between Chelsea and Vitesse was severed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with both clubs’ Russian owners seeking to divest. Performances have since plummeted: sixth in the Eredivisie in 21/22, tenth in 22/23, and dead last in 23/24 after an 18-point deduction (without which they would have been relegated anyway).
Eddy Looijen, who estimates he’s supported Vitesse for 55 of his 59 years, says the club’s off-pitch tumult and related on-pitch downturn have reduced his pride in being a Vitesse fan. Looijen said he feared for the club’s continued existence, and was hesitant about extending his season ticket for next campaign. Vitesse’s malaise hasn’t been reflected in attendances at the Gelredome: the club sold upwards of 10,000 season tickets for this season in the Eerste Divisie, compared with under 9,000 for the previous year in the Eredivisie, despite ticket prices remaining the same. Willem and Suzan too mentioned ‘solidarity amongst the supporters’ as having been this turbulent campaign’s most redeeming aspect. But it is questionable how long that solidarity will hold if Vitesse remain submerged at the bottom of the second tier– or if they go out of business altogether.
Solidarity and club loyalty were two factors which brought manager John van den Brom back to Vitesse, the club he represented as a player for 12 years and which he had also previously managed. Van den Brom– under whom Arne Slot served as assistant manager at AZ Alkmaar– agreed to rejoin the Arnhem club in April 2024 without knowing if the club would get a playing licence for the next season and without any money to spend on the transfer market. His squad managed 11 wins on the season, including a deserved 3-1 victory over Den Bosch in which six members of the starting lineup and all three Vitesse goalscorers were academy graduates.
Yet Friday’s match was also Van den Brom’s last time gracing Vitesse’s technical area. In a pre-match interview, Van den Brom declared himself ‘extremely angry’ at the club’s decision not to extend his contract, and his name was chanted all night from the Theo Bos stand. Van den Brom’s departure was also lamented by the supporters I spoke with. Willem and Suzan noted that Van den Brom had taken the Vitesse job without any guarantees and had got the team back on track, while Looijen praised him as a true ‘man of the club.’ His departure means further uncertainty around Vitesse’s future trajectory.
Vitesse’s days of competing in Europe have felt very distant in a season Vitesse have concluded bottom of the Eerste Divisie. There is no more room to sink in Arnhem. But the threat of bankruptcy and the club’s collapse still loom as Vitesse enter the summer.
Inthehalfspace 