The merger between premier division football club Roda JC and first-division squad Fortuna Sittard has been called off because it would be ‘financially irresponsible’.

On Tuesday it emerged that the Limburg provincial government had withdrawn its financial support for the merger.
‘The working party is astonished that the province, as initiator and financial backer… is breaking off support at the supreme moment,’ officials working on the merger said in a statement.
The managers of the two clubs said they could not believe the province had pulled out of the project. Both clubs have been struggling financially and the merger was seen as a way of creating a strong provincial side.
Supporters, however, welcomed the news. They had been opposed to the merger since it was first mooted.