SC Cambuur and De Graafschap see the lost lawsuit against the KNVB as a hard case. The judge approved the football association on all points at a meeting in Utrecht on Thursday, so that the clubs can almost certainly forget promotion to the Eredivisie.
“This is quite a big disappointment,” says general director Hans Martijn Ostendorp to NU.nl. “The blow is hard, especially financially. This is about a difference of millions of euros. I feel taken seriously by the judge, but it would have been nice if we had received that recognition from the KNVB.”
Cambuur and De Graafschap went to court, because the KNVB did not have the numbers one and two promoted from the Kitchen Champion Division when the discontinued Eredivisie season ended. The clubs are particularly displeased that the management of the KNVB ignored a written poll, in which sixteen of the 34 clubs voted for promotion / relegation, in the decision.
After last week’s summary proceedings, the feeling was good with Cambuur and De Graafschap – the judge asked critical questions about the infamous poll – but that turned out to be unjustified. The judge only needed ten minutes on Thursday to agree with the KNVB on all points and to sweep the promotion aspirations of the clubs off the table.
“The judge was crystal clear and I liked that,” said Ostendorp. “The trial may not be worthy of the beauty award, but the court has handled the case well. It is still too early to consider an appeal. We are going to let this settle in first.”
“There wasn’t a word of Spanish in it”
General manager Ard de Graaf of SC Cambuur was also impressed by the crystal clear, but painful statement for the clubs. He already knew which way the judge would go just after the start of the session on Thursday.
“The dominoes went one by one and there was not a word of Spanish,” said De Graaf. “I have three words stuck: the KNVB decides. That is very disappointing. We went into this matter with a backlog of 10/90 and were looking for a parenthesis in the regulations, but we did not find it.”
The clubs can still appeal to the court. In addition, there is still the general meeting of the KNVB on June 18, where Cambuur and De Graafschap may still be able to enforce promotion with the help of other clubs. However, the question is whether they want to continue with this process.
“There are not many tools to continue with,” De Graaf realizes. “In addition, we also have to realize that the club has to move forward. There is a new season with many challenges, so we have to move forward quickly. I am not saying definitively that it will stop here, but there is not much perspective.”
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