Stadium owner will not save Vitesse: ‘The club has opposed me too much’ | Football

A representative of Van de Kuits real estate company Nedstede spoke briefly with interim director Edwin Reijntjes at the end of March about a possible takeover. Partly due to dissatisfaction with the retention of chairman of the board Peter van Bussel, Van de Kuit withdrew from the talks a few days later.

Crisis manager Reijntjes reported on Monday that Van Bussel’s departure is imminent. Vitesse must set up a new supervisory board from the independent licensing committee. There is no place for Van Bussel in this. There was a lot of criticism about his performance: since his arrival in March 2023, he is said to have provided insufficient supervision at the ailing club.

Van de Kuit had left the door ajar for Vitesse in recent weeks. Now it is completely closed, despite the departure of Van Bussel. He is no longer interested in Vitesse. “There is no longer a role for us,” he emailed NU.nl on Tuesday. “The club has worked against me too much for that.”

“It is very unusual for a chairman of the supervisory board to remain in office after such events. This raises questions and that is undesirable in the situation that Vitesse finds itself in. We have no confidence in this supervisory board and the current interim management.”

Van de Kuit’s announcement is not a big blow to Vitesse’s account. After the collapsed talks in March, the club had all but given up hope of a takeover by Van de Kuit and his Amsterdam company Nedstede.

The 55-year-old real estate entrepreneur is one of the richest people in Vitesse. Van de Kuit was number 239 in the Quote 500 last year, with an estimated fortune of 250 million euros. He has been the owner of the GelreDome with Nedstede since 2018.

Van de Kuit and Reijntjes have been diametrically opposed to each other for weeks. That started with the first conversation in March. Van de Kuit sent an advisor because he was abroad. Reijntjes then demanded a personal meeting with Van de Kuit, without advisors. That didn’t happen.

“While I was assisted by advisors who tried to survey the playing field and initiate conversations, Reijntjes was busy with a peeing contest,” says Van de Kuit. Reijntjes previously gave a different lecture. “I would like to talk, but he has to respond.”

At the end of April, Reijntjes also complained publicly about “the ridiculously high rent” that Vitesse has to pay to Nedstede for renting the GelreDome for home games. The rental amount is 2.4 million euros per year.

Vitesse has itself to blame for this: then director Joost de Wit canceled the lease of the stadium in 2018 out of dissatisfaction with the then rental price of 1.8 million euros. Vitesse did nothing with it afterwards until the contract expired last year.

After a lost lawsuit and to prevent the club from being left without a stadium, Vitesse signed the lease after all, at a much higher rent. Reijntjes was not yet employed at Vitesse. He came with Paul van der Kraan at the end of March to save Vitesse.

Vitesse hopes to enforce a rent reduction at Van de Kuit after the relegation. The club says it cannot pay the current rental amount. The budget will be halved next season to approximately 12 million euros.

“We cannot pay 3 million euros for the stadium in the Kitchen Champion Division,” Reijntjes said two weeks ago. “That is not possible. It is also not interesting for investors. There are also people who do not want to get involved because they would then be financing Van de Kuit.”

A rent reduction is non-negotiable for Van de Kuit. “Reijntjes has only insulted me in recent weeks and he did not do more. We are not going to reward Vitesse for relegation,” he emails when asked. “Vitesse has been saying from the first day the stadium opened that the rent is too high. It is a reflex of failed management to keep blaming the stadium.”

Van de Kuit has often said that “Vitesse needs him more than the other way around”. If Vitesse goes bankrupt, at least seventeen home games will be lost at the GelreDome, but concerts and events can take their place.

There is a limit to that. The municipality allows GelreDome to organize a maximum of 24 concerts, two nightly dance events and six ‘exceptional events’ annually. Monster Jam, a demonstration with monster trucks, is such an exceptional event.

What that will look like is unknown. For the time being, Vitesse hopes to tackle the financial problems in the near future with regional and local investors. Despite the troubles with Vitesse, Van de Kuit says he “hopes that the club will succeed.”

The KNVB licensing committee has given Vitesse until next Friday to get out of Russian hands and solve the financial problems. Otherwise, the committee will take away the professional license. Vitesse is struggling with a debt of 18.9 million euros.

Crisis manager Reijntjes said on Monday that he would again not meet the deadline. The club will therefore appeal to the KNVB appeal committee. According to Reijntjes, there has been a breakthrough in the discussions about Russian ownership.