Netherlands: players donate their salaries to prevent the disappearance of a club

The team Vitesse Arnhem fight to save the club’s license to remain in the first division of Netherlands next season and for that, the institution’s players donated their salaries and have raised more than one million euros.

Vitesse has suffered one of the hardest blows in its history when The Dutch Federation (KNVB) sanctioned him with 18 points for persistently failing to comply with the conditions of his license. and providing incorrect information to the authorities and was relegated from the top flight for the first time in 35 years.

The truth is that the club did not appeal the sanction, but it faces a race against time to retain its license to compete at a professional level next season, so it has until the next meeting of the licensing committee, on May 17, to meet certain criteria, with debts of 18.9 million euros, according to the Dutch press.

The donation initiative is in order to demonstrate that the club has a plan to sustain the future of the Dutch entity: “That is why we have decided to sacrifice our salary for the club. We also hope to make a good contribution. We are going for the two million “Vitesse captain Marco van Ginkel told the club’s website.

Financial irregularities and license violations are the charges against Vitesse, the club has been in the hands of Russian and Georgian owners for three decades. During the past decade it was branded as ‘Chelsea B’, due to its link with the English entity and many players were loaned.

Precisely, an investigation was opened into a secret network of transfers that linked the clubs during the Roman Abramovich era at the London club. And it was even suggested that the Russian was the one who provided the funds for the purchase of the club in 2014 by an external investor. To date the case has not been resolved.