Other than a stadium that turns into a nightclub after matches and stays open until 5am, there is not much going for KV Oostende these days. De Kustboys, who reached the qualifying rounds of the Europa League in 2017 after losing in the Belgian Cup final during their first season at the Diaz Arena, were relegated last month after a decade in the Jupiler League and attracted an average attendance of only 3,700 at their 8,400-capacity home.
KVO briefly had their professional licence withdrawn in 2020 after financial difficulties under the previous regime, before being purchased by Pacific Media Group, a US-based investment fund that sold Nice to Sir Jim Ratcliffe in 2019 and has stakes in several other European clubs including the League One side Barnsley, Nancy in France and Kaiserslautern in Germany. With KVO’s debts reported at €6m, there were fears recently that their licence application would again be rejected and that they could follow the fate of Royal Excel Mouscron, the former Jupiler League club dissolved in December after filing for bankruptcy.
PMG – whose co-founders Paul Conway and Chien Lee were voted off the board at Barnsley after their relegation to League One last summer and are said to no longer have any day-to-day involvement in decision-making at the club – has since committed to clear more than half of the debts to allow for KVO’s participation in the second tier. By next season, it appears very likely that there will be new owners in the coastal town less than 40km from the French border that hosted sailing events at the 1920 Olympics.
The owners of three Premier League clubs – Bournemouth, Newcastle and Wolves – have been circling KVO for the past couple of months as they consider whether to take the plunge on a club yet to win a major trophy. At the end of March representatives from Wolves’ owner, Fosun, are understood to have visited Belgium, swiftly followed by officials from the Bournemouth owner Bill Foley’s Black Knight Sports & Entertainment. At KVO’s 4-0 thrashing by Leuven on 15 April, when relegation was confirmed, it was the turn of delegates from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns 80% of Newcastle, in a trip that included a visit to the training ground.
PIF’s interest comes after Amanda Staveley made clear at the Financial Times’s Business of Football Summit in March that Newcastle were looking to establish a multi-club network. The delegation also went to watch Standard Liège, who are owned by the American company 777 Partners, which has held talks with Staveley and Chelsea’s co-owner Todd Boehly over potential investment in their multi-club networks. It is understood PIF previously sounded out several clubs in Portugal and held talks with the French club Dijon.
The main attraction of KVO for the trio of English clubs is the prospect of establishing a satellite club in a country which is one of Europe’s most productive breeding grounds and has fewer work permit restrictions than the Premier League. Players who do not qualify for work permits under the Premier League’s GBE system can be placed in the Belgian league to earn enough points to take them over the threshold, as was the case with Kaoru Mitoma, who spent last season on loan at Union Saint-Gilloise and has thrived since returning to Brighton.
USG, owned by Brighton’s Tony Bloom, reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League this season after returning to Belgium’s top flight in 2021 for the first time in nearly 50 years. They will be joined next season by RWD Molenbeek – owned by John Textor, Crystal Palace’s biggest shareholder and the new president of Lyon after the departure of Jean-Michel Aulas. SK Beveren, owned by Textor’s fellow Palace shareholder David Blitzer, hope to join them.
PMG has indicated it wants at least €11m to do business for KVO. It is understood another scheduled visit by PIF representatives last Friday was cancelled after they decided to run the rule over other clubs instead but they and the Chinese company Fosun remain the frontrunners. Ostend’s mayor, Bart Tommelein, has called on whoever takes over to present “a robust plan for the future of our football club”.
“The city of Ostend has a role in this story,” he said. “The stadium is built on the grounds of the city. The lease agreement does state that KVO must play professional football, so be active in the first or second tier. If not, the stadium becomes the property of the city, but there is a risk that no team will play in it. That is precisely why I want to know the future plans of current American investors.”
Tommelein said he had not spoken to Conway recently but had concerns after the local volleyball club had been forced to close due to financial concerns. “I don’t want to see another club just shut down,” he said. “In the past, the investors promised to write a connecting story between the city and the club but little was achieved.”
