Karel Aalbers (born June 28, 1949, Velp) is a Dutch businessman, who was the President of the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club

Vitesse Arnhem SBV Vitesse Arnhem (''Stichting Betaald Voetbal Vitesse Arnhem, Eng: Professional Football Foundation Vitesse Arnhem''), widely known as Vitesse () or internationally known as Vitesse Arnhem, is a Dutch professional association football, footba ...

from 1984 until February 2000.

Career

Aalbers' goal was to bring Vitesse from the bottom of the second tier, where the club was when he started, to the top 40 soccer clubs of Europe. Aalbers developed the basic idea for the ' Gelredome', a stadium with a sliding pitch that can be moved out of the building. Later, the same system was applied in

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(

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

) and in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Events such as pop concerts can be held without damaging the grass. Gelredome opened in 1998. It has a roof that can be opened and closed and is fully climate controlled. In the first season after the opening, Vitesse's attendance rose to 20,000, from less than 8,000 in the old stadium. Aalbers financed the ambitions by making solid profits on the transfer market. Players such as

Roy Makaay Rudolphus Antonius "Roy" Makaay (born 9 March 1975) is a Dutch professional football coach and former footballer. As a forward, he was known for his goal-scoring ability as a result of his "aerial prowess and quick drives to the net where he can ...

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Glenn Helder Glenn Helder (born 28 October 1968) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a winger. He notably played in the Premier League for Arsenal, in the Eredivisie for Sparta Rotterdam, Vitesse Arnhem and NAC Breda. He also played in Po ...

and

Philip Cocu Phillip John-William Cocu (born 29 October 1970) is a Dutch professional football manager and former midfielder who was most recently the manager of Vitesse. Cocu was born in Eindhoven but raised in Zevenaar, playing youth football for local cl ...

were sold for large sums of money. Others came to occupy empty player positions, such as

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and

Pierre van Hooijdonk Pierre van Hooijdonk (; born 29 November 1969) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a striker. He had spells with clubs across Europe where he was a prolific goal scorer. Van Hooijdonk was capped 46 times for the Netherland ...

. Vitesse ranked in the top 4 positions, made a profit and showed a solid balance sheet in the final years of his presidency. Aalbers resigned on 15 February 2000, after the main sponsor, Nuon, threatened to pull the plug if he did not. Nuon, a public utility company owned by local authorities, had trouble explaining why it invested heavily in Aalbers' ambitious plans. The successor was Jan Koning, the former chief of

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. In a short period of time, Vitesse began to show negative financial results, due to poor deals on the transfer market. The club survived numerous financial crises, such as the last one in 2008, when debts were bought of, under the threat of bankruptcy. Aalbers is currently a marketing expert and consultant in city and stadium development. He acts as a matchmaker in international projects. Aalbers and his wife live in

Eerbeek Eerbeek is a town in the municipality of Brummen in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Eerbeek was first mentioned in 1046 as ''Erbeke''. In the 18th century, Eerbeek became a centre of paper production. Due to its proximity to the Ve ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aalbers, Karel 1949 births Living people People from Rheden Dutch football chairmen and investors Dutch businesspeople