“In the short term, what we want is to stabilize the club and make it grow,” said Jeff Luhnow, co-founder of Blue Crow on Wednesday, which bought 96 % of the Havre business club Vincent Volpe who has had it for 10 years.
Already the owner notably of the Spanish club in Leganes, in the suburbs of Madrid, Luhnow avoided all “excessive promises”, judging that it could “take 3 to 5 years” to stabilize the club.
The HAC has saved its place in the elite in the 97th minute of the last day last season and “the risk of relegation this season will be high,” he warned.
“You will have to be clever and adapt”
“Obviously it will be hard, the recipes are limited at the moment, it will be necessary to be clever and adapt,” he continued, but “Europe in the medium or long term must be an ambition for us”, even if it has refused to give a deadline.
“I understand the reluctance and questions vis-à-vis foreign owners and vis-à-vis the multi-ownership,” also assured the new owner.
He promised that, unlike the vast majority of groups in multi-ownership, no hierarchy would be established between clubs and that Le Havre would be on the same level as Leganes or the Mexican club of Cancun FC, their two other major teams.
Blue Crow Sports Group will make a club a club without a debt but the budget will remain at the moment one of the weakest Ligue 1.
“The best way to increase a budget is to increase revenue. And we increase recipes by offering a better product. This involves good sporting results but also by improving the experience of spectators, increasing the revenues outside match days … “, without forgetting the transfers, he detailed.
However, Le Havre still awaits the decision of the financial gendarme of French football, the DNCG, on its accounts for next season.
“We have no information but there is no reason for it to be negative, we have given all the required documents,” assured former owner Vincent Volpe on this subject.
