‘Director withheld half a million euros, golf association covered up the case’

NOS Sports•today, 11:23

For at least twenty years, the director of the Royal Dutch Golf Federation (NGF) has cheated with cash entry fees for golf competitions, reports Follow the Money (FTM). The research platform calculated that the director has withheld a total of around half a million euros in registration fees.

The Golf Association announced in a short statement that it explicitly distances itself from the article. The association does not want to respond to questions from NOS.

General director Jeroen Stevens of the NGF resigned in November 2023. Reports about the behavior of Stevens and national coach Maarten Lafeber were received last summer via the Center for Safe Sport Netherlands (CVSN). According to the association, these concerned communication and policy matters.

However, FTM states that his departure came after it came to light that he had been cheating with entry fees for golf competitions for at least twenty years.

Golfers who participated in competitions paid a registration fee of 50 euros to the association. That had to be paid in cash. “The contents of the cash register were divided after match days: part for the NGF and part for ‘JS’, Jeroen Stevens. ‘People within the association saw this as a normal process,’ says an insider,” writes FTM.

According to the research platform, the NGF board would have wanted to cover up the affair to protect its own image. But in March this year, a home accountant reported the matter to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a central reporting point where unusual financial transactions must be reported.

FTM reconstructed the affair with audio recordings, internal documents and conversations with those involved.

Deputy director Danielle Wallet of the NGF states on the golf association’s website that “the article contains factual inaccuracies. It unfairly points to individual persons and the article is largely based on insinuations and claims from people who want to harm the NGF and individual people.” harm.”

Regarding the cash registration fees, she states: “Part of this income was deposited into the NGF account and accounted for in its annual accounts and part was used to make cash payments.”

When asked whether there will be further investigation into the matter or whether a report will be filed, Wallet answers: “No comment.”

The NOS has tried to contact Jeroen Stevens, interim director Ernst Boekhorst and Golf Association chairman Caroline Huyskes. None of them could be reached for comment.