A majority of Enschede councillors are prepared to approve a €32m council guarantee for financially-troubled Eredivisie football club FC Twente, local newspaper Tubantia says.

The guarantee would enable the club to borrow €17m from the banks to repay a council loan which paid for stadium renovations as well as clear its other debts

Left-wing parties on the council are unhappy with the plan and would prefer a lower guarantee, the paper says. A definitive decision will be taken on December 14.

The national football association KNVB is currently investigating the deal signed between FC Twente and investment company Doyen, which entitled the investor to a considerable say over the club’s transfer policy.

The deal led to the resignation of chairman Aldo van der Laan last month. Millionaire Van der Laan took over the helm at Twente earlier this year after the club got into serious financial difficulties.

‘There is very little doubt that the transfer policy of a club in financial difficulties will be directly influenced by an investor, which can financially pull the plug on the club at virtually any time if it refuses to sell a player for a certain fee,’ lawyers Antoine Duval and Oskar van Maren, write in an analysis of the deal.

‘The problem now for FIFA (and KNVB) will be to find an appropriate sanction for the club.’

FC Twente is currently 16th in the Eredivisie.

Read a legal analysis of the Doyen deal (English)