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Debt-ridden Vitesse Arnhem football club appears to have reached a last-minute deal to avoid liquidation after businessman Guus Franke said he had reached an agreement with American investor Coley Parry.
Parry’s demand to recover the 14 million euros he loaned to the club over the past 18 months is the biggest obstacle to Frank, the owner of Swiss firm Axiom Partners and a self-proclaimed lifelong Vitesse fan, from taking over Vitesse.
Reports earlier on Monday evening said the deal had fallen through, meaning Vitesse, which has been refused a professional licence for next season after failing to balance its budget, will almost certainly go out of business.
After the club appealed, the Dutch Football Association set a deadline of 11:59 pm on Monday night for the club to meet the conditions of the appeal or lose the opportunity to participate in the Kuken Champions League next season.
As the takeover deadline approached, hundreds of fans gathered at the club’s training ground in Papendal and cheered when the takeover was announced.
⚠️Update: “Final agreement between Parry and Frank.” #speed pic.twitter.com/XLeRo3RfHU
— SV Vitesse (@SVVitesse) July 1, 2024
Vitesse hired crisis manager Edwin Reingers as a crisis manager, who said he expected the club to win the appeal if it met the KNVB’s conditions. However, Vitesse still had to convince the federation that it had dealt with all other financial issues, such as missing accounts and missing bank accounts.
“It’s amazing how well some processes work, especially when deadlines are approaching. With this agreement, we can arrange all the necessary documentation.
“We have submitted our professional license application, including budget and change of control requests. In short, we have reached our deadline. We must now wait for the case to be heard.”
Injury Time
Frank said the breakthrough came just minutes before the deadline. “I decided to pick up the phone one last time, take one last shot in the last second of injury time, and then we had a deal.”
“The positive energy that has emerged over the past few weeks speaks volumes about the value of the club to Arnhem and the wider region,” he added. “So I hope we can wrap things up quickly and get ready for some good times.”
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