By Samindra Kunti
December 1 – FC Twente chairman Aldo van der Laan has resigned after the leak of a controversial agreement with club investors Doyen Sports Investments.
Financial troubles and controversies have dominated at FC Twente for the past couple of seasons. The club overspent after the windfall from the Champions League qualification in the 2010/11 season and the investments in a state-of-the-art stadium.
Last year Twente had an operational deficit of €8 million, by the 2016/17 season the club want to reduce their financial budget to €35 million to further streamline their operations.
Van der Laan’s resignation deepens the institutional crisis at FC Twente. “The interests of the club have always been paramount and these are now under threat,” Van der Laan said in a statement. “The continuing doubts are damaging FC Twente.”
Van der Laan became chairman of Twente earlier this year.
The website Football Leaks revealed that the deal his predecessor Joop Munsterman and Van der Laan struck with Doyen Sports Investments gave the investment company a cut of player transfer fees in return for an investment of €5 million. The details of the agreement show that Doyen Sports have influence over the club’s transfer policy, something the KNVB forbids. Van der Laan resigned after the KNVB ordered their licensing committee to commence an investigation.
“We have nothing to hide, we act purely according to principle and in defense of the institutions and people we work with, namely the football clubs who are our main partners,” reacted Doyen Sports in a press release. “The case has been handed over to the competent authorities since the beginning.”
Doyen Sports revealed it had been targeted by a website called Football_Leaks last Wednesday, but did not specify the demands of the website. Football_Leaks retaliated in a statement saying it had not made any demands and asked Doyen to prove its claims that its servers had been targeted in a cyber attack.
“We hereby repudiate the deplorable statements made on Wednesday by a representative of the Doyen Sports,” wrote the founders of Football_Leaks in a statement. “Our only intention is transparency and an end to this gray cloud hovering in world football.”
The leaked documents also show Doyen’s ownership structure as part of the Doyen Group with assets in construction and finance. A Kazakhstan mining magnate would appear to be the owner of Doyen Sports with several shell companies in overseas jurisdictions, according to the documents of which the veracity has not yet been confirmed. Football_Leaks have now taken the documents offline.
In the meantime the municipality of Enschede has disclosed its intentions of helping FC Twente regain a sustainable future. The local council may renew their current agreement over the club’s stadium Grolsche Veste, including a clause that FC Twente will no longer have shares in the stadium and will need to pay annual rent.
Twente are enduring an equally dramatic season on the pitch. Last weekend Willem II defeated the team led by coach René Hake. Twente FC linger in 15th spot in the Eredivisie just above the relegation zone.
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