The club reacted immediately via press release, explaining “that a multitude of causes in the most diverse areas that the club will deal with internally, have contributed to this result. The management will discuss this analysis with the AS steering committee with the aim of laying the necessary foundations for a sustainable and once again successful sporting future for our club in the Jupiler Pro League.”
Explanations which are multiple. 6-point analysis.
1. The partial disengagement of Aspire
This is the crux of the matter: money has no longer flowed freely from Eupen in recent years. The club's Qatari owner, Aspire Academy, remains the main pillar of the club, but has been content with the bare minimum since 2021. And that, for a club the size of Eupen which has never found an alternative or financial supplement elsewhere, it's a real problem… which has proven to be more and more imposing over time.
2. Too weak a core
In 2020, Eupen was building an armada with reinforcements from multiple transfers. Even ex-Barça defender Adriano signed at Kehrweg. Amazing. After this season of all expenses punctuated by a place in the soft underbelly of the ranking, Aspire decided that the party was over. Little by little, we downsized, each time letting the different executives leave at the end of their respective contracts. The problem is that behind them, we have replaced them with elements of experience and lesser quality, or even risky bets on the future. But by dint of pulling on the rope, the Alliance took part in the 2023-2024 championship with the weakest core in the last 10 years.
3. Sports decision-makers
Without a real sporting director since the departure of Jordi Condom, Eupen operates with a recruiter named Siggi Marti and the approval of general director Christoph Henkel. The German Siggi Marti came out of the shadows to make several choices in agreement with the general management. This season, after appointing the German Florian Kohfeldt as head of the team, he also authorized several big transfers. Milos Pantovic, Kevin Mohwald and Bartosz Bialek have joined the German-speaking club with juicy contracts. Verdict: the first two never performed at the expected level and the 3rd was injured before the championship even started. He was replaced by the ghostly Finnbogason. There really wasn't another offensive player to sign? Renaud Emond a little earlier, for example?
4. The German fantasy
It has become a big fantasy that has come up cyclically in recent years: opting for a German coach at Eupen. To believe that the Pandas had to arm themselves as well as possible for the Bundesliga and not the Belgian Pro League. Result: no Teuton has been able to forget the late Wolfgang Frank. Stefan Kramer, Bernd Storck and Florian Kohfeldt broke their teeth before being sacked. Except for Kohfeldt, who courageously left the ship when drowning seemed inevitable. It was mid-March.
5. Too passive management
While Eupen got bogged down, management never dared to question the role of the coach. If he had not resigned, it is likely that Kohfeldt would have been retained until the end of this nightmare season. The other clubs concerned by the maintenance reacted more quickly. Even Charleroi noted the painful divorce with the faithful Mazzu, recalling that the priority was to get one's head above water. No matter how, no matter with whom. Among the Black and Whites from the east of the country, we looked for a coach without success (and… Mazzu refused the mission), before entrusting the destiny of the team to a regional, Kristoffer Andersen, T2 who was not therefore not the club's first choice but who did what he could in a very difficult context.
In its indecisions and inaction, the club's management must also draw the necessary conclusions.
6. An identity that is lost
In D1A, Eupen was a small club from a small town. Some people have sometimes forgotten it. Especially since this friendly and atypical side could have been an asset. By locking down communication, transferring illustrious strangers and sometimes forgetting the many French speakers who support the AS, decision-makers have gradually lost their way. How can we explain that a club like Eupen is the least covered by the media in the entire D1A? How can we allow ourselves to snub journalists, by no longer giving information on the core or by no longer sending players to pre-match press conferences when these no longer appeal to many people? It is clear that all this was for nothing. And stadium attendance continues to be sadly low.
On the core and staff side, it was possible to recruit Belgian (if not regional) and try to forge a real bilingual identity (French-German) within the club and its supporters. Today, the small club from the small town is trying in vain to seduce on social networks in English, by targeting an artificial community which will not follow in Challenger Pro League, the new name of the D1B…
In short, there is work at Eupen and, above all, a real need to reconnect with the identity of the club, the one that made it charming and interesting not so long ago.
