Aldo van der Laan Steps Down as Twente President

Aldo van der Laan, the President of FC Twente, has announced that he was stepping from his post. The announcement came after leaked documents revealing that the soon-to-resign president had signed a deal with outside investors, concerning the transfer of players.

The bone of contention was the agreement with Doyen Sports Investments, a Maltese company that was said to blacken the club reputation. Currently, the company is being investigated by the Dutch soccer federation.

Documents about the contract between Twente and Doyen were published this week. The deal was inked last year but at that time, FIFA has not prohibited the third-party ownership practice yet.
According to the clauses the contract contains, the company had to pay a total of €5 million in exchange for a percentage of the transfer fee rights of seven players.

Doyen made an announcement on the matter and according to company representatives the leaked information was partially true. As for the documents, they claimed they had been obtained via a cyber attack and tried to disapprove what was published in media.

Company officials also added that they have already taken the necessary actions towards identifying those responsible for the attack. They also clearly stated that Doyen Sports had nothing to hide and all future actions were to be in favour of its partners and people the company works with. The company representatives concluded that the competent authorities have already been put in charge of the case.

Back in 2014, FIFA made the third-party ownership illegal and pointed the threat to the integrity as the main reason for that decision. In other words, investors were said to force transfers in order to turn a profit.

Van der Laan also commented on his resignation and said that Twente interests have always been among his top priorities. However, they were under threat and the doubts had an extremely negative impact on Twente’s reputation.

Van der Laan has been in charge of the club for less than a year. In point of fact, he has “inherited” the deal from his predecessor Joop Munsterman who also had a finger in the pie. Apart from the clause concerning the percentage of transfer fee rights, the contract contains yet another clause that gives Doyen the right to have a say over the transfer policy of Twente, which is currently banned by the KNVB.