The Pandas could see that Aspire still had the club’s destiny in their hands.
Last summer, the news had made the rounds of Belgium in less time than it takes to say it: in Eupen, the Qataris left the ship, cut the floodgates and left just a financial contribution in terms of main sponsor . The management of the club was then left to the club. Ivan Bravo left the club’s organization chart, Jordi Condom went to Seraing and a new structure was put in place.
But the start of the championship and the summer is superb for the Pandas. Twice, they are at the top of the championship and the sauce takes directly. Did this make people talk about Aspire and Doha? Maybe, but at the end of August, a press release came out: Tim Cahill joined the club’s board of directors. Beside that, he is the sports director of Aspire Zone Foundation. He comes to the club to improve relations between the club and the parent company.
So far it has not been felt too much, but the transfer window has arrived. This Thursday, Eupen formalized the arrival of two players. One from PSG (whose links with Aspire and Qatar are known) and another from PAOK… whose youth academy is financed and supervised by Aspire. The deal is clear: Eupen has made a step backwards in terms of strategy. Moreover, other young players should arrive in the coming days, under the same conditions.
All of this is not negative, very clearly, because ultimately it is this association that has made Eupen what has become: a regular in our D1A.
