Judge rejects Twente claim to undo relegation in Dutch soccer league

The Middle-Netherlands court in Utrecht ruled on Friday that the Licence Committee was right in relegating FC Twente to the second tier of Dutch football league on grounds of financial mismanagement.

The licence committee of the Dutch football association KNVB had proposed to revoke the professional license and that at the same time a new licence will be issued. With this new license Twente can return at the lowest professional level, which is the Jupiler League, the second level, reports Xinhua.

Afterwards Twente went to court for a ruling in the case and the club from Enschede also appealed at the appeals committee of the KNVB. The club can appeal the court verdict, but said in a statement it will first await the appeal verdict of the KNVB, which is unlikely to differ from the other verdicts.

The License Commission and the judge came to the conclusion that the financial acts of Twente in recent years justified to revoke the license, but also found that the efforts in the last few months to clean up justified to retain a new license.

Due to financial irregularities Twente were already punished three times with a three-point deduction over the past year and in December 2015 the club was banned for three years of participation in European competitions.

Besides the financial mismanagement, the club was also accused of having misled the license committee. For instance, the club failed to mention the influence of investment company Doyen Sports on some transfers.

Led by chairman Joop Munsterman, Twente became champions of the Netherlands in 2010 and played in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League later that year. One year later Twente also won the Dutch Cup. Looking back now the sporting successes proved to be built on financial quicksand.

The forcible relegation means that De Graafschap, which finished 17th in the Eredivisie last season and lost the promotion/relegation play-offs, will remain at the highest level.

--IANS

pur/dg