Thursday, September 4, 2025 (18:27) – FCGFANS.NL
In this article:
The Court of Appeal decided on Wednesday that Vitesse will receive its professional license for the time being and can end up in the Kitchen Champion Division, a statement that caused a lot of fuss within Dutch football. The decision came unexpectedly for journalists and clubs, and puts pressure on the KNVB and the competition course.
Ad-journalist Maarten Wijffels responds fiercely: he mentions the statement harmful to the credibility of football and warns that it creates a precedent for other professional clubs who do not comply with strict financial and administrative rules. In his description of the news reaction, he emphasizes the contrast between colleagues who found it sensational and his own care about the logic and consequences of the verdict. He also states that the hard deployment of the KNVB license committee-which can penalize clubs heavily-is almost canceled out, which is unfair to clubs that pursue careful policy, as he calls Excelsior in particular.
According to him, Wijffels points to a structural problem: according to him, the Dutch system has too few forms of sanctions – in practice you only have (almost) full exclusion – so that such judicial statements have extra disruptive effect. He argues for rules towards promotion/relegation or an open pyramid, such as in some neighboring countries, to absorb such situations future -proof. Practically the ruling leads to unclearness for this season: schedules, competition balance and transfers are unjustly influenced by the time of the judgment.
According to Wijffels, the pronunciation also damages the appearance of Dutch football at European level; According to him, foreign observers are already looking at a system without flexible relegation options. The case shows that legal decisions may have large football and organizational consequences, and that administrative reforms may be needed to prevent similar disruptions.
