Dutch soccer club president resigns over transfer deals
ENSCHEDE, Netherlands --
The president of Dutch soccer club FC Twente has resigned after leaked documents revealed a deal with outside investors for the transfer of players.
Aldo van der Laan said he was leaving because doubts raised by an agreement with Malta-based Doyen Sports Investments were damaging the club. The Dutch soccer federation is investigating, Twente said.
The Football Leaks website this week published a contract between Twente and Doyen among a tranche of documents released.
The deal was signed in 2014, before FIFA outlawed the practice known as third-party ownership. Doyen agreed to pay the club 5 million euros ($5.3 million) for between 10 and 50 percent of the transfer fee rights for seven players.
Responding to the wider leak, Doyen said Tuesday that the documents "some of which are true" were obtained through a cyber-attack on its servers having not given in to "pressure and demands" from the Football Leaks website.
"Doyen Sports has taken the appropriate measures to identify those responsible for this attack," the company said. "We have nothing to hide, we act purely according to principle and in defense of the institutions and people we work with, namely the football clubs who are our main partners. The case has been handed over to the competent authorities since the beginning."
FIFA banned third-party ownership as a threat to the integrity of the game because investors force transfers to make a profit.
