Football talks!
Club Brugge announced this week that it will go public. Club Brugge will be the first Belgian club to be listed on the stock exchange, and the general public will be able to buy shares.
Many see this as further proof that Club Brugge are building a huge lead over the competition in the Jupiler Pro League. When they manage to realise their building plans, the gap with the rest seems unbridgeable.
Apart from the great work done by Bart Verhaeghe and Vincent Mannaert, the question is whether this is such a positive development for Belgian football and for Club Brugge themselves.
After all, Club Brugge also benefits from playing in a strong competition. A competition that is already decided in advance, does not attract better players, sponsors or supporters. Within Europe, Club Brugge could lose competitiveness in this way, both sporting and financially.
And what about the next television contract if the Belgian league turns out to be a one horse race?
Finally, the number of European places is not only determined by the European results of Club Brugge, but also by those of the other Belgian teams. Here too, Club Brugge has an interest in making sure the other teams are competitive and get excellent European results.
It should therefore come as no surprise that Club Brugge are absolutely in favour of the BeNeLiga, which could solve some of the above issues for them.
Of course, Club Brugge are right when they say that the others should work like them and try to keep up. What can be done in Bruges must also be possible in the rest of the country, right?
Definitely! With good management and the right people in the right place, there are certainly a number of clubs that can still make the leap to close the gap, but it's slowly becoming 5 to 12.
Lawyer - Master in Law - Master in Sportmanagement
4 年Vicky Van Tongelen bedankt, inderdaad leuk om te doen
Attaché - Jurist - Legal Consultant
4 年Leuk om lezen Tim! Ben blij te zien dat je een manier gevonden hebt om ook je hobby in je job te integreren ??
Equity Capital Markets and Sport Finance
4 年thanks for the article Tim Smet . I agree with you both that others need to follow Brugge. I believe that football clubs are eligible to finance their investment programs through an IPO or other capital markets actions (likewise companies operating in more "traditional" business) Although Not all clubs are fully eligible for an IPO, they must accept that some disruptive organizational changes need to be put in place (IPO OR NOT) in order to be perceived as more reliable and sustainable by investors and banking system. It could be true that IPO may result detrimental in fans identification, but it may help clubs to get good results "off the pitch" which often bring good results "on the pitch" which, all together, nourish fans engagement..
Business angel/Investor
4 年An IPO is a guarantee for enhanced governance practices. Should the top-3 teams in all Western competitions go public then a lot of iffy practices would disappear. Football would then gradually become a normal industry whereby the irrationality and short-termism of fans would to a lesser extent permeate to the Boardroom.?It would also mean that those clubs are owned by a wider public, managed by professionals subject to governance and transparency regulations. That would be good. However, an IPO is detrimental to the "we - one family" aspect of football fandom as it becomes harder for fans to identify themselves. Last but not least, a listed company competes for funds coming from the capitals markets, investors like predictability in their returns on investment. This will be an incredible challenge in football; investors aren't as loyal as fans, I am afraid.