February 10 – Belgian football presented record losses for the financial year 2022, with the 25 professional clubs collectively losing €156 million, confirming the trend of the last few seasons.
Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Charleroi and KV Kortrijk were the only clubs to generate profit, but the €4 million positive return for of the Brussels-based Anderlecht is the result of accounting rather than commercial performance. Owner Marc Coucke chalked off €51 million in debt while a capital injection of €42 million, partly financed by non-executive chairman Wouter Vandenhaute and Geert Duyck, ensured Anderlecht’s profitable outlook.
Antwerp recorded a mammoth loss of €31.5 million while Standard Liege suffered €22.3 million in losses. In the second division, Lommel, owned by the City Football Group, and Beerschot, owned by Saudi prince Abdullah bin Musad bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, also lost around €10 million each. In the topflight, OH Leuven recorded a loss of €15 million. They are owned by King Power whose owners also control Leicester City in the English Premier League where they have also been writing off losses.
The losses are nothing new in Belgian football where clubs have frequently failed to balance the books. In 2019, there was a then record total loss of €87.8 million and last year that that figure rose to €139.6 million.
The league has a five-year plan which seeks to compel clubs to improve on their current losses by at least 20%.
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