Is the FCL now threatened with a license bang?

Someone has to pay for losses

Is the FCL now threatened with a license bang?

Keeping track of the power struggle for the FCL is not easy. Especially because the next problem is already knocking in Central Switzerland.

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Who carries the guarantee for the licensing process of possibly 5 million francs at the FCL?

Carlo Emanuele FrezzaReporter football

There are still a good 50 days until the first deadline in the licensing process for the 2023/24 season. Clubs must submit their licensing documentation to the Swiss Football League (SFL) by March 2nd. In addition to many formalities, two points are particularly important, emphasizes SFL media spokesman Philipp Guggisberg. “A club must not be over-indebted and must present a balanced budget.”

This is definitely a problem for FC Luzern. Both the parent company FCL Holding AG and the subsidiary FCL Innerschweiz AG reported a loss in the millions for the financial year ended June 2022. In addition, the FCL is unlikely to have covered the loss in the transition period from July to December, which is a decisive factor in the licensing process – on the contrary. In other words, someone has to pay for the shortfall or at least provide a bank guarantee. It is rumored that this is an amount of around 5 million Swiss francs.

FCL-Frick after test swatter: “The result looks bad”(02:46)

Who pays? Bieri or Alpstaeg?

However, the two shareholders Bernhard Alpstaeg and Josef Bieri are only willing to pay under certain conditions. «I have something that the board of directors doesn’t have: namely time. Of course I’m still willing to invest. But not before I have 52 percent of my shares and voting rights again,” emphasizes Alpstaeg.

Bieri, on the other hand, sent a message from Zurich Airport shortly after his flight home from Marbella on Tuesday that he was of course still willing to pay for it. A few weeks ago it sounded different. “If no solution is found … Josef Bieri will in particular not bear any share of the guarantee for the licensing process required in February 2023 in the amount of possibly CHF 5 million.”

This quote comes from a letter dated November 30 that Bieri’s lawyers sent to Alpstaeg. When asked about this, Bieri said that this would have happened if his fellow shareholder had launched a sweeping attack. However, the board of directors prevented this on December 21 by deleting 25 percent of Alpstaeg’s shares from the share register.

Alpstaeg to the FCL chaos: “I have something that the board of directors doesn’t have: time”(02:08)

FCL is not worried

Because Bieri is currently willing to pay, the club management is not concerned about the license. “We will apply for them as normal for the next season. I don’t want to comment any further at the moment because we don’t want a media ping-pong with Bernhard Alpstaeg, but are interested in a constructive solution,” said Stefan Wolf in an interview with Blick.

At the moment, the FCL does not look like an impending license withdrawal. In any case, it would be a nightmare scenario for the whole of central Switzerland. The notification of the decisions of the license commission is expected for May 1st. If a club receives a negative decision, it has two days to appeal. The final decisions of the league will then be published on May 26th.