Vitesse players learned of relegation via group app: ‘There was total disbelief’ | Football

Van Ginkel was at home on Friday when a message appeared in the Vitesse group app. It contained the damning judgment of the KNVB licensing committee. Due to “the exceptional seriousness and extent of the violations” of the licensing rules, Vitesse had been deducted eighteen points.

After 35 seasons at the highest level, the curtain fell for Vitesse in the Eredivisie. “I read it in disbelief,” Van Ginkel said five days later at a press conference, where the captain discussed the relegation of the club where he grew up for the first time. “Immediately demoted, you can feel that.”

The Vitesse players had been given a weekend off by coach Edward Sturing because of the cup final. Van Ginkel: “This weekend was different than usual, I can tell you. It was special to experience.”

“The relegation hurts very much. It hurts everyone, but especially boys who have a greater bond with the club than others,” said the attacking midfielder, who has been associated with Vitesse for more than eleven years over two periods. “It’s hard to talk about it.”

Trainer Sturing had already foreseen the impending disaster. The sixty-year-old Gelderlander has been associated with Vitesse as a player and employee for thirty years and saw up close how his club was destroyed by mismanagement and megalomaniac plans. “We knew it could happen, but -18 didn’t. This hit very hard.”

It sounds crazy, Sturing said, but the trainer soon switched to the future. He therefore did not want to judge the policymakers who brought Vitesse to the brink of collapse. “We can look at who is guilty, but we will not save the club with that.”

On Monday he addressed the players at the first meeting in the locker room. What do you say to a team that has already been relegated four games before the end and has a remarkable points total of -1?

“It is very difficult to motivate the players,” Sturing acknowledged. “But I told them that they are paid to play football. That they play for supporters who pay admission to see us. We have a responsibility to those people. They have the right to see a good match.”

When Sturing asked whether a player wanted to quit, there were only negative answers. “The passion and the will are still there during training. Players may have a hard time with it, but they are training well. It is no different than usual, even though they have questions about what their future looks like now.”

At this level, football players are also enthusiasts, Sturing said. “They want to win every game. I had that too as a player, even though we were playing for the Snowball Cup.” Van Ginkel: “We want to get rid of -1 point, that would be very nice.”

The question is what the future looks like for Van Ginkel and Sturing if Vitesse overcomes its financial problems and plays in the Kitchen Champion Division next season. In any case, Sturing will step down as head coach. He will probably make way for John van den Brom.

Van Ginkel has an expiring contract. Will the eight-time Dutch international play with ‘his’ club in the Kitchen Champion Division? “It’s difficult to say whether I will continue,” he initially said.

When the many artificial grass fields in the Kitchen Champion Division were later discussed, Van Ginkel said “there is not a very good chance” that he will stay. After several serious knee injuries, he “doesn’t like” playing on plastic grass. He wants to continue playing football.

When a journalist noted that Van Ginkel can only stay if the midfielder starts laying grass everywhere, interim director Edwin Reijntjes responded cynically. “If you are going to plant grass everywhere, it is better to invest in Vitesse.” It could not have summarized Vitesse’s dire situation better.