© KVO
Football Challenger Pro League
Ostend –
Temporary administrator Werner Van Oosterwyck explains some matters in the takeover file on the KV Oostende website. He is aiming for white smoke by early May.
The acquisition opportunities would be moving in the right direction. “There are currently two concrete options,” says Van Oosterwyck. “Both parties signed a ‘Letter of Intent’, a declaration of intent to purchase the club. For example, it also contains some conditions precedent to purchasing the club. We now meet most of those conditions. So things are going in the right direction, but we are certainly not there yet. For these two parties, retention in the Challenger Pro League is not part of the suspensive conditions, but other parties are waiting until there is certainty and have therefore not yet signed a ‘Letter of Intent’. Now, it seems important to me that the club can maintain itself.”
When making a selection, Werner Van Oosterwyck mainly wants to take into account “a long-term vision in which clear financial commitments are made, but also that attention is paid to the local anchoring of the club.” The temporary administrator notes that “under the previous policy – despite empty promises – there was little sporting ambition, that the financial transactions were unclear to say the least and that KV Oostende lost its identity. The people of Ostend must be able to reconcile with KVO again and there must be sporting ambition without getting into financial problems. At the moment, a takeover is of course our priority, but we are also already looking at the options to hold the American regime legally responsible for failure to fulfill financial promises and total mismanagement of the club.” With the Special Tax Inspectorate (BBI) about the In the tribune file, according to Werner Van Oosterwyck, an agreement was reached on the tax debts in which every party involved can agree, including the potential buyers. “So that is an important step.”
The temporary administrator, whose mandate expires at the beginning of July, hopes to have clarity about the takeover at the beginning of May, so that KVO also obtains its professional license for next season. “This requires strict financial planning.”