Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Saving Brondby

I must admit that I have not followed the Danish league in detail for ages. Living abroad, with plenty of work and with outstanding leagues to watch in South America, North America and Europe, the Danish league falls a bit in the background.
And the fact that my favourite side, Brondby, has been at the bottom for a couple of years has not helped on the desire to follow the Danish "Super" league...
I therefore had to find out why I was being offered options on Brondby shares when I checked my bank recently. Turns out that the club, on the verge of bankruptcy, is trying to raise 60 Million Danish Crowns through an issuing of shares, where current stockholders receive the right to buy 13 new shares for every share owned.
Believe this: there are few worse investments than investing in a football club! So the stocks worth 80 Euros I bought in years ago was more an emotional investment; to have the feeling that I am still part of the marvelous community that Brondby fans are.
But should I support the stock emission to "save" Brondby and use my options?
The fans have made a webpage calling for fans to contribute so that the club can be "saved": redbrondby.dk. The site is to gather support for the stock emission, but it says really nothing of what "saving" means. Granted, it means that Brondby will not go bankruptcy, and thus not forced down to play in the lower divisions, something that no matter how you see it, will be a huge blow to the atmosphere and excitement of the Danish league. But it seems to me Brondby may go down to the second division anyway (currently they are swerving above relegation), and that to invest in the team may be like pouring water out of the Titanic with a teaspoon...
If I put money into the club, I would like to know what the club wants to do for the future. The team has not been working since Michael Laudrup left in 2006, and a pretty lousy management, sleeping on the misplaced grandeur of the past when Brondby was the "flagship" of European football, let the club be overtaken by petty sides from the middle of nowhere, such as FC Nordsjaelland, Randers and Horsens (!?!?).
I would want a management with their feet on the ground and with a realistic view about what Brondby can achieve over the next 10 years. Frankly, this has to include some hard things to swallow: we are unlikely to win the league in the near future. If we get to play European football we cannot expect to progress beyond the first round.
We are not the 90's Brondby any longer. Wake up.
On redbrondby.dk they include some famous people that support the club. I have never heard about any of them, except Jan Bartram, a great Danish player from the 1980s who had a rather short career. He is the only footballer I see supporting the club in these difficult moments, and I have to wonder where many of the legends of the club are: Michael Laudrup, Brian Laudrup, Peter Schmeichel, Lars Olsen, Kim Vilfort, Ebbe Sand, Marc Rieper, Allan Nielsen, Daniel Agger....? Legends from Brondby. What do they think about all this?
I am sure that with the talent school, infrastructure and fan-base, Brondby surely can be fighting for the title in the future. But it will take time and realism to rebuild what has been destroyed by lousy management over a long time, and I am not sure I am seeing this in the current "offer" to contribute money to them (which sounds so much better than the fact that they are actually begging).
So what should I do?

1 comment:

El Erik said...

This is great to hear, and at least answers some of my doubts:
http://politiken.dk/sport/fodbold/superligaen/ECE1951784/en-haer-af-broendby-legender-er-klar-til-at-koebe-aktier/