Helmond Sport has the ambition to return to the Eredivisie within three years, chairman and director Philippe van Esch has announced. The successful entrepreneur can no longer stand that the people from Brabant invariably end up in the lower regions of the Kitchen Champion Division. This should change through a collaboration with KV Mechelen, an injection of millions and a new stadium in 2024. “If it is possible in Waalwijk or Heerenveen, it should also be possible in a city like Helmond, right? We will play in the Eredivisie within three years. I will not stop before that.”
The club has made a three-year plan to reach the highest level. “With a budget of 1.7 million euros, we should be able to get into the left row. The following year we will make the step to the top four and the following year we will play in the Eredivisie,” said an ambitious Van Esch. Eindhovens Dagblad† The owner of wall covering company Vescom has been with the club for fourteen years, but is now going to ensure change for the low flyer from the first division. “That last place was disastrous, I really can’t stand it anymore. I am an entrepreneur and I want to be successful. But if we do what we did yesterday, we won’t get there.”
In order to realize the plans, the help of KV Mechelen is therefore also called in. The Belgians will mainly help Helmond Sport in the scouting of new talents. A nice step for the Brabant club, with which Van Esch is very satisfied. “Mechelen has a scouting network, from which five suitable names come from a funnel of a thousand players. We are now tapping into that network. We would have preferred to have done this last season, but I can now enforce more myself since I am part shareholder of Mechelen. And to be honest: the power there does not interest me, but that in addition to the business interest, Helmond Sport can grow faster in this way,” says the chairman.
Helmond Sport is already busy putting together the selection for next season. The player budget is going up considerably at the club from the Kitchen Champion Division. “That does indeed mean more money,” says Van Esch. “We have kept the players’ budget very small for years: about eight hundred. We have made an analysis of what it takes to participate at the top in the Kitchen Champion Division and then money has to be added. That is about a million. I don’t know “certainly where we will end up but it will be around €1.8 million. If you look at the top eight clubs in the league, they all have budgets between €2 and €3 million.”
Helmond Sport finished last season in last place in the Kitchen Champion Division. This was the third time in the past five seasons. The last season, the last season also received a three-point deduction from the KNVB. That was due to not playing the away match against FC Emmen on January 14. The club was struggling with many corona and injury cases and therefore decided not to travel to Drenthe. The football association decided that Helmond had not given a valid reason and decided to deduct three points from the club. Moreover, the match against Emmen still had to be made up.
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