A group around the American investment group Pacific Media Group has exclusive discussions with football club KV Oostende about an acquisition. The intention is to introduce thorough data analysis in Belgian football.
There is a new hijacker on the coast to buy the ailing first-class KV Oostende. The coastal club exclusively negotiates a takeover with the American Paul Conway, along with the Chinese-American billionaire Chien Lee, who is also active in the travel sector. The group already owns Swiss first-class FC Thun and English second-class Barnsley.
The exclusive conversations are remarkable. Because last week it became known that the wealthy American investor David Blitzer, co-owner of Crystal Palace in the English Premier League, showed an interest in the coastal club. Blitzer offered around 5 million euros for 100 percent of the club. Current owner Frank Dierckens did not like that, leaving the track. He would recuperate his money - Dierckens increased the club's capital by 3 million euros - but his role would have been played out. Chien Lee would not want the full pot, so Dierckens can keep an important share in the club.

Dierckens has always said that he considers local anchoring important. It is unclear whether, like Blitzer, the new candidate would be willing to settle a debt of 6 million euros to former owner Marc Coucke, with whom KVO was already begging. Blitzer also offered to buy the stand for 20 million from Coucke. The rental price that KVO has to pay for the grandstand is a millstone around the club's neck.

Without a transferee, the club is heading for bankruptcy. There is not much time left. Ostend must submit a license file to the Football Association by 15 February. Without a license it cannot come out in the highest class of our football. That is why the acquisition must be completed quickly.
INEOS

Paul Conway and Chien Lee are no strangers in the football world. Last year they sold 80 percent of the French first-class OGC Nice for an unconfirmed amount of 100 million euros to the British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe. That is the man behind chemical giant INEOS, an important player in the port of Antwerp. Ratcliffe also owns the Swiss club Lausanne and last year also took over the largest cycling team in the world, Sky.
At Nice, Paul Conway and Chien Lee had a series of investors behind them. One of them was the Chinese Alex Zheng, together with Chien Lee founder of the Plateno Hotel Group. That presents itself on its website as the largest hotel group in China, with 6,300 hotels in 470 Chinese cities. Chien Lee has been living in the US for 30 years and has American nationality, but most of his business empire is in the Far East.

KVO may become the 13th of 24 professional clubs in foreign hands. The intention of Conway and Lee is to introduce a system of data analysis in Belgian football. They also did that at other clubs. At Barnsley, Billy Beane is a remarkable co-investor.
Beane is the icon of sports data analysis, thanks to the Hollywood film "Moneyball". As technical director of the Oakland A’s baseball team, Beane developed a computer model to discover undervalued players. He was initially laughed at, but the "team of pruters" started to perform better year after year, after which everyone in baseball started copying the Beane method.