Vitesse: The Story Continues...

[Tempelman]

An update on the situation at my club. There is an agreement between the soon to be new owner of the club and Coley Parry, they made the appeal just in time before midnight to the license committee. 

I am skeptical. Quite a lot. I said about Twente a couple of years ago, that in my opinion, they should lose their license, for 'cheating' and messing with the club's finances. With that in mind, and Vitesse being my club, I just can't say, my club should be saved, because they have virtually done the same. I am even surprised that anyone wants to invest in the club. Meanwhile the interim directors and some other employees earn several tons of money, say they can't cut costs any more, and point fingers at everyone else but themselves. Gambling on one horse, a big poker bluff play, to take over the club and invest. In my opinion nothing has been learned from the past, waiting for just one investor to take over, instead of cutting costs more. The club SHOULD have collapsed, horrible thing to say about my club, but that is my opinion.

The appeal is in about a week and then we will see what will happen. Some media report the club is saved, but there still are a lot of things to be done. No banker, no accountant, for example

[Tempelman]

An update. Yesterday the licensing committee made the decision to again give Vitesse more time until 22 July to make their affairs in order. Vitesse and the intended new owner (Guus Franke) claim they have submitted all the right documents to the KNVB, there was an external accountant company who vetted Franke's finances, still the licensing committee is not convinced and wants to do more research on the source of his financial records, which would take 4 months. This angered Franke who has threatened to pull out if they don't make a final decision before 22 July. So big powerplay it is... 

Vitesse once again contacted Gelredome stadium owner Van der Kuijt to maybe step in if it all collapses. But he wants to cut into the finances more, and wants the interim directors to not get their expensive bonuses.

[Tempelman]

An update...

After months of total insecurity, postponements and a lot of nailbiting Vitesse finally meets all demands the licensing committee has made, and as of today, just now got their professional license back!! For a moment I felt good we were going the same way as Bordeaux, it is kind of a bloody miracle that Vitesse got it back. Vitesse were lucky that the KNVB also did not want to lose Vitesse as a professional club, and they cut Vitesse a lot of slack and time to get everything in order.

[Johno]

On 03/08/2024 at 18:52, Tempelman said:

An update...

After months of total insecurity, postponements and a lot of nailbiting Vitesse finally meets all demands the licensing committee has made, and as of today, just now got their professional license back!! For a moment I felt good we were going the same way as Bordeaux, it is kind of a bloody miracle that Vitesse got it back. Vitesse were lucky that the KNVB also did not want to lose Vitesse as a professional club, and they cut Vitesse a lot of slack and time to get everything in order.

Fantastic!

[Derek]

Is everything ok now mate with the club? Well reasonably speaking.

Terrible to see what happened to Bordeaux.

[Tempelman]

On 11/08/2024 at 11:50, Derek said:

Is everything ok now mate with the club? Well reasonably speaking.

Terrible to see what happened to Bordeaux.

Yes, indeed, Bordeaux was a fun club to play with in FM.

Vitesse have in my honest opinion been lucky... There was no-one ready to declare them bankrupt, which has probably saved them. The club still has a debt of 20M, but Parry has agreed to postpone payments of that debt until next year. 

Meanwhile, the KNVB is going to start an investigation into Guus Franke, who wants to be the new owner. He has an agreement with Parry about the 20M debt. At the same time older business partners of Franke have told that Franke is unreliable. So if Franke will not become the new owner, or if he does not fulfil what he promised to do, Vitesse will have similar financial issues next season.

Right now, all we can do is wait.

Edit: meanwhile, @VyKing promised me he would come to visit Holland, and obviously visit a match of Vitesse, once Vitesse has been saved

[Derek]

1 minute ago, Tempelman said:

Yes, indeed, Bordeaux was a fun club to play with in FM.

Vitesse have in my honest opinion been lucky... There was no-one ready to declare them bankrupt, which has probably saved them. The club still has a debt of 20M, but Parry has agreed to postpone payments of that debt until next year. 

Meanwhile, the KNVB is going to start an investigation into Guys Franke, who wants to be the new owner. He has an agreement with Parry about the 20M debt. At the same time older business partners of Franke have told that Franke is unreliable. So if Franke will not become the new owner, or if he does not fulfil what he promised to do, Vitesse will have similar financial issues next season.

Right now, all we can do is wait.

Where did the debt come from? Is it associated to the time Vitesse were linked to then Abramovich owned Chelsea?

I've yet to see a case where this type of official/unofficial link works well for both parties with the exception of the Red Bull group.

I know multi club ownership is different to this situation but I'm curious...

[Tempelman]

1 minute ago, Derek said:

Where did the debt come from? Is it associated to the time Vitesse were linked to then Abramovich owned Chelsea?

I've yet to see a case where this type of official/unofficial link works well for both parties with the exception of the Red Bull group.

I know multi club ownership is different to this situation but I'm curious...

The debt occurred when the Russian investor Valeriy Oyf stepped out of the club, because of the war. He had already invested several millions (like over a 100M) into the club but 'didn't want it back'. 

American investor Coley Parry was in line to take over the club, and before that invested several millions into the club, with a high interest rate, should the takeover be rejected.

The takeover was eventually (after 18 months) rejected by the KNVB because Parry could not prove where his money came from. Rules for take overs are very strict over here. Vitesse were even fined for misleading, and an 18 point deduction, effectively relegating the club to the Keuken Kampioen divisie. The invested millions by Parry were turned into debts, which, as said, have a high interest rate.

[Johno]

Sounds mind-boggling with all this! Hopefully things will get sorted out sooner!

[Tempelman]

Another update.

Originally, one of the demands of the licensing committee of the KNVB is that Coley Parry can't have any influence of any sorts regarding Vitesse. This was a no go, and if Parry did have any future influence, the club would never get their pro license back.

Fast forward to a week ago. Guus Franke has stepped down as future owner, and blames Parry for it. Former business partners of Franke already warned Vitesse several times that Franke is unreliable, a fraud, as a whole not trustworthy. Franke had a deal with Parry about the debt of 17M, but at the same time, Franke was also still under investigation of the KNVB. Both parties are fighting it out through the media, and blaming each other.

The thing is, there seemed to be a 'sideletter', a document between Franke and Parry, which proves that Parry would still have influence on the sell of shares of Vitesse, which was a no go for the license committee. The board of Vitesse claim they did not know about this document, which is naive. 

If they knew, the club could lose their license for good. If they did not know, as said, naive. 

Meanwhile as well, the club had a six point deduction, and because of the debt, the accountant cannot sign off the bills for next year, which will likely result in another point deduction. Vitesse are bottom KKD at this moment.

This fucking soap never seems to end.....

[Johno]

What a joke Thought it would be solved by now!

[Tempelman]

If you guys are interested, this podcast of around 90 minutes long, is where Coley Parry himself tells his side of the story from the collapsed takeover, to today.

I got to admit, that I did not trust this man at all, as well as his intentions with Vitesse. But, I now see a man who is well spoken, polite, calm and realistic, who seems to know what he is doing, or what he was doing. His side of the story definitely makes a lot of sense, and is very much believable. I am inclined to believe it.

Anyway, very interesting podcast, if you want to know more about what happened at the club for the past years until this day, then I can definitely recommend it

 

[Tempelman]

21 point deduction. But today is also a happy kind of day, because we finally won a game. All I can say at the moment. -12 points it is

[Johno]

On 29/11/2024 at 21:21, Tempelman said:

21 point deduction. But today is also a happy kind of day, because we finally won a game. All I can say at the moment. -12 points it is

Ouch! I am sure Vitesse, will get back to where they belong

[VyKing]

On 03/12/2024 at 14:53, Johno said:

Ouch! I am sure Vitesse, will get back to where they belong

Bottom of the Eredivisie while ajax sit on top

[Johno]

1 hour ago, VyKing said:

Bottom of the Eredivisie while ajax sit on top

Haha Are they still getting players from Chelsea? Or is that stopped now?

[Tempelman]

On 15/01/2025 at 18:23, Johno said:

Haha Are they still getting players from Chelsea? Or is that stopped now?

Stopped years ago since Abramovic stepped down. 

So far I have no real news as of yet. There are a few interested parties including a Dutch one, who seem to be further into negotiations than other interested parties. This season is a loss though and luckily Vitesse cannot relegate any further

[Tempelman]

On 15/01/2025 at 17:21, VyKing said:

Bottom of the Eredivisie while ajax sit on top

Take a look at the league table and see where Ajax is at. At the moment they play either good, or really bad, lucky (and I am not joking) to be so far up the table as it is

[Tempelman]

Today I heard the news Vitesse has been taken over by 5 unknown foreign investors, all of these individuals have a less than 25% minority stake at the club, which means they already comply to KNVB rules, and as such the licensing committee probably (I am not sure) does not have to investigate the new owners. Parry's debt of 17M has already been paid off, and the club now suddenly has a positive balance of 4M equity. What all of this means, I am not totally sure, the club has claimed several times that they have been saved... To be continued, I am pretty skeptical

[Johno]

On 24/01/2025 at 16:41, Tempelman said:

Today I heard the news Vitesse has been taken over by 5 unknown foreign investors, all of these individuals have a less than 25% minority stake at the club, which means they already comply to KNVB rules, and as such the licensing committee probably (I am not sure) does not have to investigate the new owners. Parry's debt of 17M has already been paid off, and the club now suddenly has a positive balance of 4M equity. What all of this means, I am not totally sure, the club has claimed several times that they have been saved... To be continued, I am pretty skeptical

Wow 5?! Will be interesting to see who they are?

[Tempelman]

57 minutes ago, Johno said:

Wow 5?! Will be interesting to see who they are?

Next week we will know, they will introduce themselves then. According to Reijntjes they do have football know-how.

Obviously there are a lot of rumors going around at the moment, because of the rules that the KNVB has in place, as said all have minority stakes and as such Vitesse does not have to go to the whole licensing process like previously. Personally I am very skeptical, like everyone is because of the construction of the deal, it is like bending/stretching the rules, plus that this was very sudden, but let's wait and see. This season is a lost cause anyway. There are rumors Parry himself set it all up and he actually is the owner. 

No official response from the KNVB as of yet, and I am very curious what they think.

Van der Kuit (stadium owner) does not trust it either and said that from 2030, Vitesse will lose Gelredome as home ground. 

The soap still continues...

[Johno]

4 minutes ago, Tempelman said:

Next week we will know, they will introduce themselves then. According to Reijntjes they do have football know-how.

Obviously there are a lot of rumors going around at the moment, because of the rules that the KNVB has in place, as said all have minority stakes and as such Vitesse does not have to go to the whole licensing process like previously. Personally I am very skeptical, like everyone is because of the construction of the deal, it is like bending/stretching the rules, plus that this was very sudden, but let's wait and see. This season is a lost cause anyway. There are rumors Parry himself set it all up and he actually is the owner. 

No official response from the KNVB as of yet, and I am very curious what they think.

Van der Kuit (stadium owner) does not trust it either and said that from 2030, Vitesse will lose Gelredome as home ground. 

The soap still continues...

Any reason why?

[Tempelman]

7 hours ago, Johno said:

Any reason why?

He also had interest in Vitesse, so I think it has hurt his pride. But he is a very ruthless businessman, who always plays through the media

[Tempelman]

The 5 new owners are as followed (translation from Vitesse website)...

- Dane Murphy: an American former professional footballer who played for New York Cosmos,VfL Osnabrück and DC United. Owns a company named DMW Vista (but when I Google the company, I can't find much information, except the Dutch news articles announcing the new owners). He also was CEO at Barnsley FC and Nottingham Forest.

- Flint Reilly: a real professional with experience in the NBA, Liverpool FC and an (unnamed) sportsagency. The American namely has a background in commerce and sponsoring.

- Timo Braash: is Managing Director at Global Investment Partners. Braasch is a German entrepreneur who specializes in complex problem solving and strategic growth investments. He has been actively involved in real estate, German SMEs and Sports & Entertainment, both as an investor and advisor. 

- Leon Mueller:  is a former footballer who now works as an entrepreneur in Berlin. The German successfully led the family business in the automotive sector, which grew into one of Berlin's largest mobility providers. He co-hosts a football podcast and has close ties within the football world. 

- Bryan Mornaghi: is an experienced lawyer and investor. The Italian has experience with various acquisitions, handling complex legal matters and negotiating and signing large capital contracts with Dutch companies in the offshore wind sector. 

 

Future plans

The initial period will be used to get to know the club better. Attention will be paid to Vitesse's history, club culture and its role in the region and society. The shareholders will also hold various discussions with Vitesse's most important stakeholders. 

One thing is already clear; the shareholders are young, ambitious, realistic and determined to get Vitesse back where it belongs. That takes time. Vitesse deserves to be a self-sufficient club that not only focuses on short-term success, but also on the continuous development of our academy, players and organisation. 

 

No media activities for the time being

The shareholders have chosen not to do any media activities for the time being. The focus is initially on creating peace and above all the internal organisation.

 

So, two Americans, two Germans and one Italian dude.