This summer, Dutch player Maret Balkestein-Grothues and Chemik Police in Poland had a preliminary agreement to a year-long contract to play with the team.
The original deal had two agreements between the club and the player – playing the sport and the image with the team. Balkestein-Grothues was given 10 days to sign the contract with the club, but instead, it was signed by her agent on June 30, 2017, Jakub Dolata. Chemik Police paid all costs that were associated with Balkestein-Grothues’ transfer to the team.
The first major disagreement or retribution being saught by Chemik Police were the two promised contracts that were originally to be signed in June and were still under dispute by October. The club allotted Balkestein-Grothues an apartment, car, insurance and any other cost associated to her playing with the club. Balkestein-Grothues asked for some changes in the final contract but Chemik Police would not offer her changes and offered Balkestein-Grothues to settle out of court – she and her agent declined the offer.
At the beginning of November, Chemik Police asked to conclude the contract as to avoid going to court, however, Balkestein-Grothues declined. On November 10, Chemik Police filed a lawsuit against Balkestein-Grothues in the District Court in Szczecin for the two promised contracts.
A lawyer of Balkestein-Grothues in Brussels requested that Chemik Police pay Balkestein-Grothues for the two contracts towards the end of November. Chemik Police refused until Balkestein-Grothues fulfilled the contract terms.
On December 6, Balkestein-Grothues left the club without announcing her departure to Chemik Police – also without returning the car or apartment key to the club.
Now, Balkestein-Grothues is looking for another club after her departure from Chemik Police, where she only played in one match with the team in the Supercup.
“I regret that it has happened. Not only that I will not be able to play this season in the Champions League, but I also lost valuable time to play. Now the most important thing for me is to find a new team as quickly as possible so that I can concentrate on volleyball,” said Balkestein-Grothues.
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