Dean Johnson Takes Control of FC Liège in Belgium
In a General meeting of Belgium’s 3rd Division team RFC Liège, 48 voters unanimously approved a status change for the club. The overwhelming vote means the club will restructure from its current non-profit/members-owned structure to a privately-owned company.
RFC Liège officials will submit the changes today to the Belgian Football Union (URBSFA) for approval. Officials from the club don’t expect any complications and believe things will be finalized within three months.
The change to the club’s status means that St. Paul, MN native Dean Johnson will now take over the team. Johnson had previously stated that he will retain the club president Jules Dethier. He has also said he wants to restore the status of the club which was a top division team at one time, playing in European competitions. He plans on improving the payroll to pull in improved players and wants to rebuild the team’s academy program. He has also said he would build the team a new stadium which will include a four star hotel, restaurant, fitness center, clinic and sports shops.
The controversy lies in that Johnson still owes over a million dollars to vendors and former employees when he owned the Minnesota Thunder soccer team. Some of those employees fronted thousands of dollars of their own money or allowed the team to charge items on their own personal accounts with the promise that Johnson would pay them back. Something that still hasn’t been done more than a year after he allowed one of the oldest standing professional soccer teams in the United States to fold.
One RFC Liège supporter told IMS that the club knows of Johnson’s past dealings in the US but are under an enormous amount of pressure to keep the team going. In the past several weeks the club had missed paying some players and were in danger of being shut down by the URBSFA.
Johnson attempted to engage the National Sports Center in conversations about purchasing the Minnesota Stars from the NSC this past fall. The NSC released a statement to IMS in late November saying they had requested that Johnson pay his debts before entering into negotiations with the non-profit organization. The NSC no longer heard from Johnson after the request.
United Soccer Leagues President Tim Holt also released a statement to IMS saying that they were fully aware of Johnson’s debts and that the situation had been reported to the United States Soccer Federation last year.
Comments are closed.
If he can make it work, more power to him but I’m concerned desperation has led to a lack of due dilegence. It does sound they (Liege supporters) are aware of the outstanding debts remaining with the Thunder. If he makes it work hopefully his debtors will be finally be paid!
Is anyone aware of the financial stipulations and dollar reserves in place for Belgium clubs? I’m thinking something along the lines of what USSF has placed on D2 here in the past few months. I think they would be more structured and regulated than to allow a “golden goose” to land and save the day and club simply because the goose can quack!
I wonder what project or funding Wingfield is trying to secure in Liège.
I’m at a loss. How he can leave so many people holding the bag here and start it all over again in Belgium makes my stomach turn. Life must be easier when you’re a sociopath.
I look forward to supporting the RFCL FC Liege Nessy Stars in 2011-12.
Wow. Not much more to say than that.
I feel sorry for the FC Liège fans. Rock and a hard place. Under pressure to keep the team going, they’ve hitched their wagon to a dead horse. They just don’t know it yet.
He-who-shall-not-be-named may have the money to pull this off BECAUSE he stiffed people in Minnesota. There must not be any sort of fit-and-proper ownership test in Belgium.
There has to be a way to hold this man accountable for his wreckless actions. Sad!
One of my first jobs out of law school was to continue the foreclosure process in NY for failed S&Ls. The same people that ran some of these S&Ls were officers and directors for new banks in the same town or city. Welcome to the world of business and an ability to avoid accountability for past actions (see the Bankruptcy Code). It is crazy sometimes.
That being said, I see a similar result for FC Liege. Sad.
Good Luck with that FC Liège!
What goes on in belgium gets interesting by the minute , belgium has been a place of misuse In the soccer world for years it has been used by certain clubs/persons within clubs and buissness if you like you can take your pick on how you divide it , it has been a place because of its slack rules or laws where footballers are brought in and developed by larger clubs and then shipped out to bigger european clubs on europead passports when generally these players would not have an entitlement to do so , a number of years back a person very big in the football world was brought to book regarding one of these issues where apparently players were put in one of these clubs and developed for shipping out to the european club or sold on depending on how good the player became i suppose. Money was being paid to the the belgian club to look after the players apparently this would have been fine except it was apparently found the person had bought shares in that club in belgium so it was seen as unethical ,this person represented a huge club , he was a key figure in the FA at one point ,was even mentioned for the top job in the FA more recently, regarding mr johnson it seems that he knew exactly what he was doing in the USA with regards to the club ,he allowed the public within the club to bail him out to a point ,let them use their money on the club with a promise he would pay them back, i once knew some one like that he had 70,000 to his name but he never used it , he owed thousands to everybody else all on a promis.Last year i came across a director of one of these clubs in belgium who runs his club as USA college rules where a player is not entitled to have an agent but an agent can hand over goods or show interest without being involved with the player why is that?. I have to say that this is happening at smaller clubs it may be that they are trying to stay a float by reducing the clubs to scolarships where players pay if they want to become footballers that is a huge promis and by the way i know for a fact that a player at this club hasent been paid since the start of the season and the player had to buy himself out of his previous club even though his contract had ended and was an ameture where is this correct in soccer terms . the fit and proper persons situation extends to FIFA also i dont think it just relates to belgian law and the same would extend to those persons who lost money in the USA .you have to take the matter further because the USA is also governed by one of the soccer federations and persons involed in USA soccer will have to abide by their rules and i am prety much sure that this would deal with the matter ,the proviso is proof many things fall because there is no proof.
This dude is CLOWN!
That’s right. I said it.
And I am not backing off of it this time.
I don’t care if I hurt his feelings. Again.
Clean up your image by paying the people you owe.
No. That’s too much work. He took the snake oil show on the road.
“Charlatan” was too nice a word. I’m thinking of another word.
It also starts with a “C” and ryhmes with “hook”. Nah- that’s too kind. So I’m gonna say it: “CROOK”.
Diplomacy time is long over.
Hey DJ, maybe you should spend a little reading message boards and invest more time thinking about how to reimburse loyal employees who–in good faith–used personal credit cards to keep your club going.
I can’t beleive that guy actually had the gall to approach NSC.
Good luck Belgians! Looks like you are going to seriously need it.
Dean Johnson is showing his lack of business acumen by taking his shell game into Belgium and its economy.
I guess that makes his business skills on par with his ethics
josh – you know quite a bit about the stuff that goes on in belgium. i know which club you are talking about – also in the liege area. the problem with royal liege is that they’re broke. they were just relegated at the end of last season and didn’t have to be but the crap that was going on in the club, with the finances, etc. was pretty much their downfall. it’s also hard for guys to play hard for you too when you’re not paying them.
it would be great to have this guy buy the team and make a success of it but the way he screwed over all those people well hell, i don’t see it working for him in liege either. i imagine that he’s up to something shady. he has big ideas with a new stadium with a hotel attached and all that fantasy. the big problem in belgium is that there are too many teams and not many good ones. this is the same for the top division – Jupiler Pro League.
i’m very interested to see what is going on here.
One of things Wingfield does is arcitectural design for hotels. So it is no coincidence that the building of a hotel is part of Johnson’s “vision”. This will end very badly for the club. They must be very desperate.
yes, Vic, they are so seems they’ll take a chance on anything. will be sad to see royal liege disappear completely.