Final rescue plan fails, Veendam definitely bankrupt

Dutch second level club SC Veendam was definitely declared bankrupt on Tuesday after a late final rescue plan by fans failed.Veendam suffered from financial problems for a while and asked for a moratorium three weeks ago. On Monday March 25 the club was declared bankrupt, after the club was not able to collect over one million euros to pay its debts and survive.The club had an eight-day appeal period in which fans of the club tried to collect 600,000 euros to be able to finish this season. The deadline for a possible appeal was Tuesday. Although the club received massive support and even a charity concert was organized in the stadium, the fans were only able to get 200,000 euros, clearly not enough to save the club's future.Veendam was founded in 1894 and played professional football since 1954. In the 1986/1987 and 1988/1989 seasons the club from the northern province of Groningen played on the highest Dutch level, the Eredivisie.Former Dutch internationals Frans de Munck, Dick Nanninga, Jurrie Koolhof, Pieter Huistra, Hennie Meijer all played for Veendam, while current international Ruben Schaken also has a history at the bankrupt club.The bankruptcy of Veendam is already the fourth in Dutch pro soccer in three years, following AGOVV Apeldoorn (2013), HFC Haarlem (2010) and RBC Roosendaal (2011).The Dutch Second Divison will now continue with sixteen clubs. The results against Veendam will be scrapped which has impact on the standings. MVV Maastricht suffers most from the vanishing of Veendam, because it beat Veendam twice already and will lose six points. The side from Maastricht dropped from the second to the fourth spot.Helmond Sport will now take over the lead from FC Volendam, because it lost its sole match against Veendam. They are the new leaders with 51 points from 27 matches, followed by FC Volendam (25-48), Sparta (25-46) and MVV (25-45).