Karel Aalbers (born June 28, 1949, Velp) is a Dutch businessman, who was the President of the football club Vitesse Arnhem from 1984 until February 2000.

Players such as Roy Makaay, Sander Westerveld, Nikos Machlas, Glenn Helder and Philip Cocu were sold for large sums of money.

Vitesse ranked in the top 4 positions, made a profit and showed a solid balance sheet in the final years of his presidency.

Nuon, a public utility company owned by local authorities, had trouble explaining why it invested heavily in Aalbers' ambitious plans.

In a short period of time, Vitesse began to show negative financial results, due to poor deals on the transfer market.