Before Vitesse fell into Georgian and Russian hands, the club was kept afloat by wealthy supporters from the region. Film producer Willem Osterloh from Elst even put two hundred thousand euros on the table in 2008 to protect his favorite club from bankruptcy.
The need was great in Arnhem at the time, Osterloh tells the Gelderlander. “The salaries could no longer be paid. An acute need of 200,000 euros was needed. Van der Kraan (Paul, then general manager, ed.) wanted to ask four sponsors to cough up that amount. As a loan. That did not work. the salaries were paid through an interest-free loan. The club was not allowed to go bankrupt,” said the supporter, who did so anonymously at the time.
In the preceding years too, the supporters had to take regular action. “The Friends of Vitesse – Jan Snellenburg, Herman Veenendaal and Cor Guijt – spent a lot of money on the club. But at a certain point it stops. Paul van der Kraan did everything to keep Vitesse above water. All four deserve a prize. statue at Vitesse. They kept the club alive. It was not hip at the time to belong to Vitesse.”
According to Osterloh, the people who earned money for Vitesse are no longer there. “The scouting, led by Van Hintum (Marc, ed.) and Janus van Gelder, was also important for Vitesse.” The two left Arnhem at the end of 2020. “They have earned more than 33 million euros for the club in recent years. That is now a utopia. There is a poor quality team, which represents little value.”
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