The Takeover Thread - Duchatelet Finally Sells (Jan 2020)

Roland Duchâtelet, the controversial owner of Charlton Athletic, has put the club up for sale and admitted that he should not have invested in football.

The Belgian bought Charlton nearly four years ago when they were in the Championship but has faced strong protests from supporters in recent seasons over the way that he has run the club, who are now in League One.

CARD (Coalition Against Roland Duchâtelet), a supporters’ group, have put pressure on him to either invest or sell his stake in the club. Stunts have included a mock funeral being held before kick-off, beach balls being thrown on the pitch and a pitch invasion.

Until now, Duchâtelet,71, had been adamant that he would not sell Charlton.

“I have not decided anything, I am open to possible offers, I will take the time to think, but contrary to popular belief I have not made any money from football, this rarely happens for investors, those who say otherwise are wrong,” Duchâtelet said.


Duchâtelet has controlled clubs in Germany, Spain and Hungary. He was forced to sell Standard Liège, the Belgian club, in 2015 when repeated fan protests turned aggressive. There were clashes with police near the stadium, a group of fans broke into Duchâtelet’s office and others stormed an event for sponsors, who had to ask the media to help them to safety.

Liège fans had similar grievances to Charlton’s, including the lack of reinvestment from the sale of their best players, such as Axel Witsel, and the sacking of favoured managers.

Duchâtelet sold Saint-Trond, the Belgian club, last month.

“It’s not that I’m fed up, I have other activities and my age,” he said. “Actually, I wanted to leave football after the sale of the Standard Liège. Football is an exciting world, but very complex: there is a lot of underground influences, we decide a lot about emotions, we make and break your image on the basis of rumours, social networks create real background slides that are difficult to answer.

“It was an interesting experience and I learned a lot about how social media have an impact on the psychology of masses and how they can influence decisions which affect many people.”

So he’s basically claiming the reason he’s failed is because of fans on social media. We know that’s bollocks but it’s great because it means we really got under his wrinkly old skin.