An emergency solution has now been secured for FC Helsingør’s financial crisis
After a nerve-racking week with unpaid wages and the looming threat of enforced relegation, FC Helsingør’s liquidity has been stabilized to a degree that means the club is able to pay salaries. Local forces have stepped in to save the club’s finances.
At the eleventh hour, players and staff at FC Helsingør can breathe a sigh of relief. A liquidity crisis meant that wages were not paid out on Monday, but that has now been corrected.
“I have no words for how relieved I am,” says owner and director Bo Bay Hougaard about the situation. “It is not just the players and staff, but the entire collective around the club that has been on tenterhooks. Fans, the academy, business partners, the municipality. There are so many cogs in our local community that risked grinding to a halt.”
But now the club has managed to mobilize the necessary financial injection needed to save the club here and now. The wages have been sent for payment and the risk of bankruptcy is no longer looming. That it had to come to this, Bo Bay Hougaard regrets:
“That it happens on my watch, I am of course very affected by. Fortunately, we have a good dialogue with the players and staff, who have all week believed that the board and I would succeed in finding a solution. I am deeply grateful for their support. The same goes for all the partners and fans who, despite the shock, have expressed their support and hung in there.”
While the crisis has been averted for now, there is still a lot of work ahead for the management. The club has for some time been in talks with potential investors and that effort continues. In the coming week, management will also contact creditors and seek to find solutions to current outstanding matters.
“We are not there yet, and so far it has been agreed that we are working in a confidential setting. Professional football is an extremely complex business area, even with a lot of emotions involved. But now there is once again peace to work, so the players can focus 100 % on their task. Already on Sunday, that will be to beat AC Horsens, who are coming to visit. I hope for many spectators. The players and staff deserve full support from the whole city, so they can move on after the shock.”
There is also great relief on the club’s board. Not least on behalf of the academy, explains chairman of the board Finn Moseholm, that the rescue has been crucial:
“The academy’s U19 team has just played its way into the national cup final. Several of the team’s young talents have gained experience by training alongside the first team. That is the spirit of the club. We do not only play football for the sake of the adult professionals, but also for young people. Therefore, investors must understand the importance of elite sport for grassroots sport and what it is they are buying into. Fortunately, that understanding exists out there.”
The match against AC Horsens will be played at Helsingør Stadion on Sunday, 5 May, at 14. Admission will be free for children and young people under 18 years of age. The fan bar opens at 16 with the presentation of the player of the day.
The U19 team plays the national cup final on Wednesday, 15 May, at 18:30 against FC Nordsjælland at Tingbjerg Idrætspark.
