Stierli not voted out, but a new shareholder: FC Luzern reveals the AGM secret

class=”sc-29f61514-0 fwWrRV”>

FC Luzern has sufficiently advertised the general meeting of FCL-Innerschweiz AG in recent days. The club wanted to attract as many fans as possible to the Lucerne trade fair, hall 4, through radio spots, newspaper advertisements and social media. Always with the mysterious slogan “Do eschöppis ide Loft”.

The result is visible. 1,500 people came, more than ever before. Shortly before 8 p.m. the secret is revealed. From now on, FCL-Innerschweiz AG has a new shareholder – in addition to FCL Holding AG and numerous small shareholders. It is called FCL Basis, is a newly founded club and has acquired 10 percent of the shares. The creation of the club is the result of a collaboration between fans and FC Luzern.

Because there are countless fans behind the FCL base. With the share package they purchased, they secured a seat on the board of directors of FCL-Innerschweiz AG. This gives them direct control over the future of the club. The first representative on the board of directors of the FCL base is Daniel Britschgi.

Chairman Stefan Wolf describes this step as a milestone in the club’s history. FC Luzern also benefits financially from the newly founded club. Through this share transaction, 1 million francs flowed to the subsidiary FCL-Innerschweiz AG.

Loss yes, bankruptcy no

Later in the evening, FC Luzern published the annual report of FCL Holding AG. It turns out that the club is not swimming in money as expected. But he’s not doing too badly either. Recently there was talk of possible bankruptcy.

Bernhard Alpstaeg (78) publicly described that he saw the survival of the FCL in danger. These assumptions in the club environment have been described as “shocking”. “That is not true at all,” says CFO Richard Furrer.

A courageous decision results in a loss

The bottom line is that the consolidated balance sheet of FCL Holding AG shows a loss of 3.1 million francs as of June 30. This is approximately the same as in the previous two years (2020/21: 3.3 million Swiss francs; 2021/22: 3.2 million Swiss francs).

You don’t worry about it. “This loss, while unsatisfactory, is explainable,” Furrer said. He does this with high investments in the youth and scouting departments, in women’s football, in organizational development and in digitalization.

“However, the financial result was most strongly influenced by the conscious, strategically based decision to forego larger transfer income,” Furrer emphasizes. Consider the whereabouts of Ardon Jashari. The FCL earned 1.7 million francs from the sale of players. This is the second lowest transfer income of the past five years. Only in the Corona year 2020/21 (1.2 million Swiss francs) were there fewer. In other years it was always at least twice as much.

Renovation measures are mandatory

“With appropriate transfers we would now be talking about record sales,” says Furrer. The FCL had matters in its own hands and opted for the courageous option and thus for sporting competitiveness and continuity. This courage should pay off in the future “with significantly higher transfer income”.

The world of football is so volatile that such prospects can backfire. But a lot would have to go wrong to not be able to benefit from the strong young talent in the coming years.

Despite everything, it should be noted that the FCL can only take this step because it is dependent on two subordinated loans (a total of CHF 3.4 million) and on shareholders willing to pay (CHF 1.6 million) – with exception of Bernhard Alpstaeg. can count. These restructuring measures resulted in an economic equity of 1.1 million francs. Otherwise he would probably have been dependent on transfer income. And the financial year would have ended very differently.

Source : Blick