‘You were tough on us when we needed it. And showed heart for us afterwards.’

With sadness, the board, the Supervisory Board (Raad van Toezicht) and the management of the Vechtsportautoriteit (Dutch Martial Arts Authority) have learned of the death of Eberhard van der Laan. As mayor of Amsterdam, he was present at the birth of the authority. After banning martial arts galas in the city in 2010 following several incidents, he also took up the challenge of cleaning up our martial arts world.

For years he was involved behind the scenes in the preparations for the current authority. Because he was firmly convinced that our sport could be of added value, provided that we tackled the excesses ourselves. For his efforts on behalf of our sport, he received a championship belt in 2015 from Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Remy Bonjasky, Semmy Schilt and Rico Verhoeven.

We are enormously grateful to Eberhard for his commitment. Without him, our Vechtsportautoriteit would not have existed. We wish his family and friends strength in coping with this loss and will continue his work as well as we can.

On behalf of the management, the board and the Supervisory Board of the Vechtsportautoriteit