It's become fashionable on CL to solemnly proclaim that owners who are fans make terrible mistakes, and that RD is a "hard-headed" businessmen, who is bound therefore to make better decisions.
I respectfully draw the attention of such Lifers to the just-announced annual figures for Swansea City FC, a club who were in the fourth division long after the last time we beat the Spanners. They have just announced an operating profit for the second year running.
Not only are the directors fans, but 20% of the club is directly in the ownership of fans.
How did they afford to buy their 20%?
I don't think a 4th tier club costs too much, in fact their first purchase was only 12k.
For Prague to try and compare their situation, previously or now, is as laughable as pretending the trust has 5k followers.
Your constant digging of the Trust isn't half dull.
I really appreciated your post because I think we should all try to understand Roland Duchatelet the man. But he does not make it easy.
Regarding his politics. We talked with the leader of the Standard Socios this week, he described RD as a "Tea party capitalist" . I mentioned this to Douglas de Coninck from de Morgen and he said he disagrees with that. He said RD's party Vivant has most in common with the Basic Income Movement. Certainly you can see socialist elements in the thinking, but to British eyes it is hard to categorise because he also favours a slimmed down state and lower direct taxes, which we would associate with the right wing.
When he was active, how did he do, as a political leader? Did he make inspirational speeches? I'm struggling to fit the idea of a politician with the RD we know who refuses to say anything at all unless in a controlled, edited video. A man who says through his representative "we just have to accept" his way.
The sad thing is that if he bothered to listen to people such as Richard Murray he would learn that Charlton fans are different to Standard fans, we come from a different kind of city, we have a different history. We're adults who can accept difficult truths about football finance. But if he doesn't tell talk to us as adults, he cannot be surprised if we become more and more negative if we don't see progress on the pitch. I bet as leader as Vivant, he didn't say " I'm not going to explain how my brilliant ideas work, you will just have to accept that they will..."
RD isn't the man of inspirational speeches. He's rather a quiet thinker and his more modest approach of things also affects his football interests (usually in a negative way). First some facts: Belgium has a population of approx. 11 million people, The Netherlands approx 16 million. However we have about twice the amount of people working for the government (which is even less efficient). We pay the highest amount of income taks ... in the world (Jeremy Clarkson), which has a direct impact on wages. Hence, Belgium is way too expensive and is loosing jobs by the minute (car manufacturing industry, Walloon steel plants, etc ...). So, you don't need to be a right wing hardliner to want to minimize the overhead cost, i.e. beginning with the amount of people society has to pay for (government employees) via different kind of taxes. I think it's fair to say that RD's ideas are mainly focused on"economy enhancing". His ideas on society are really rather leftish. It gives you an idea how left the center in Wallonia is, if RD is compared to the tea party ! Example: a couple of years ago it turned out that in Wallonia 3 (seperate) families existed, consisting each out of a grandfather, a father and a son who hadn't worked a single day in their entire life. Students quiting school (or getting a degree), but not getting employment get an income through social benefits. We have 42 year old Belgians still receiving these benefits after 20 years. Gives you an idea of our "social benefit system" and I will even not start elaborating on people coming outside of Belgium. If mainly one political party is defending this social system, who do you think all these life long benefit depending people will vote for ? ( I think I mentioned this party in an earlier post). Also, it would be a great mistake for anyone (including RD), to put any group of supporters on the same line as SL. It's a club embedded in a really peculiar society. I'm not a fan of RD and I'm rather puzzled how he thinks football clubs should be run, I'm even more puzzled by the sort and quality of players he sometimes gets for his clubs, but ... he's not corrupt, he's no asshole and he's certainly not a fool. He however is not perfect, with certainly a number of communication issues to adress. I really wonder what will happen if he eventually is able to sell SL.
Roland is a business man. His business, politics and football ownership are just about personal gain. He thinks he has found a way to make money out of football that is not dependent on results, which is the player pool he owns. Players are widgets that he profits from.
And if that's how it is that's how it is, football is a business like it or not it has been since people realised the zeros you can earn are so big for even being a failure in the top tier,
RD isn't the man of inspirational speeches. He's rather a quiet thinker and his more modest approach of things also affects his football interests (usually in a negative way). First some facts: Belgium has a population of approx. 11 million people, The Netherlands approx 16 million. However we have about twice the amount of people working for the government (which is even less efficient). We pay the highest amount of income taks ... in the world (Jeremy Clarkson), which has a direct impact on wages. Hence, Belgium is way too expensive and is loosing jobs by the minute (car manufacturing industry, Walloon steel plants, etc ...). So, you don't need to be a right wing hardliner to want to minimize the overhead cost, i.e. beginning with the amount of people society has to pay for (government employees) via different kind of taxes. I think it's fair to say that RD's ideas are mainly focused on"economy enhancing". His ideas on society are really rather leftish. It gives you an idea how left the center in Wallonia is, if RD is compared to the tea party ! Example: a couple of years ago it turned out that in Wallonia 3 (seperate) families existed, consisting each out of a grandfather, a father and a son who hadn't worked a single day in their entire life. Students quiting school (or getting a degree), but not getting employment get an income through social benefits. We have 42 year old Belgians still receiving these benefits after 20 years. Gives you an idea of our "social benefit system" and I will even not start elaborating on people coming outside of Belgium. If mainly one political party is defending this social system, who do you think all these life long benefit depending people will vote for ? ( I think I mentioned this party in an earlier post). Also, it would be a great mistake for anyone (including RD), to put any group of supporters on the same line as SL. It's a club embedded in a really peculiar society. I'm not a fan of RD and I'm rather puzzled how he thinks football clubs should be run, I'm even more puzzled by the sort and quality of players he sometimes gets for his clubs, but ... he's not corrupt, he's no asshole and he's certainly not a fool. He however is not perfect, with certainly a number of communication issues to adress. I really wonder what will happen if he eventually is able to sell SL.
It has been exactly the same set up in Britain under Labour (left), from 1997-2010.
The Tories (right) won power 5 years ago and have reduced the something for nothing culture.
Election looming this May and it could go either way. But I think a Labour coalition is most likely.
Comments
I really appreciated your post because I think we should all try to understand Roland Duchatelet the man. But he does not make it easy.
Regarding his politics. We talked with the leader of the Standard Socios this week, he described RD as a "Tea party capitalist" . I mentioned this to Douglas de Coninck from de Morgen and he said he disagrees with that. He said RD's party Vivant has most in common with the Basic Income Movement. Certainly you can see socialist elements in the thinking, but to British eyes it is hard to categorise because he also favours a slimmed down state and lower direct taxes, which we would associate with the right wing.
When he was active, how did he do, as a political leader? Did he make inspirational speeches? I'm struggling to fit the idea of a politician with the RD we know who refuses to say anything at all unless in a controlled, edited video. A man who says through his representative "we just have to accept" his way.
The sad thing is that if he bothered to listen to people such as Richard Murray he would learn that Charlton fans are different to Standard fans, we come from a different kind of city, we have a different history. We're adults who can accept difficult truths about football finance. But if he doesn't tell talk to us as adults, he cannot be surprised if we become more and more negative if we don't see progress on the pitch. I bet as leader as Vivant, he didn't say " I'm not going to explain how my brilliant ideas work, you will just have to accept that they will..."
Scored and assisted last night
Rd ur a legend
First some facts: Belgium has a population of approx. 11 million people, The Netherlands approx 16 million. However we have about twice the amount of people working for the government (which is even less efficient). We pay the highest amount of income taks ... in the world (Jeremy Clarkson), which has a direct impact on wages. Hence, Belgium is way too expensive and is loosing jobs by the minute (car manufacturing industry, Walloon steel plants, etc ...). So, you don't need to be a right wing hardliner to want to minimize the overhead cost, i.e. beginning with the amount of people society has to pay for (government employees) via different kind of taxes.
I think it's fair to say that RD's ideas are mainly focused on"economy enhancing". His ideas on society are really rather leftish. It gives you an idea how left the center in Wallonia is, if RD is compared to the tea party ! Example: a couple of years ago it turned out that in Wallonia 3 (seperate) families existed, consisting each out of a grandfather, a father and a son who hadn't worked a single day in their entire life. Students quiting school (or getting a degree), but not getting employment get an income through social benefits. We have 42 year old Belgians still receiving these benefits after 20 years. Gives you an idea of our "social benefit system" and I will even not start elaborating on people coming outside of Belgium. If mainly one political party is defending this social system, who do you think all these life long benefit depending people will vote for ? ( I think I mentioned this party in an earlier post).
Also, it would be a great mistake for anyone (including RD), to put any group of supporters on the same line as SL. It's a club embedded in a really peculiar society.
I'm not a fan of RD and I'm rather puzzled how he thinks football clubs should be run, I'm even more puzzled by the sort and quality of players he sometimes gets for his clubs, but ... he's not corrupt, he's no asshole and he's certainly not a fool. He however is not perfect, with certainly a number of communication issues to adress. I really wonder what will happen if he eventually is able to sell SL.
football is a business
like it or not it has been since people realised the zeros you can earn are so big for even being a failure in the top tier,
beyond that the damage he will do will be hard to repair in terms of fans not renewing seasons
The Tories (right) won power 5 years ago and have reduced the something for nothing culture.
Election looming this May and it could go either way. But I think a Labour coalition is most likely.