Kaiserslautern are his only success story of last season...... https://sportbild.bild.de/fussball/...t-schon-an-die-bundesliga-80283708.sport.html His first plan for them is to balance the budget. It's a shame he didn't do that here.
Here it is in English , same old :- By Lukas Dombrowski Lautern is back - and he helped finance promotion to the second division. US investor Chien Lee and his company "NewCity Capital" joined FCK in the spring with three million euros, acquiring around ten percent of the club shares together with other US financiers from the "Pacific Media Group". Lee, who lives in Miami/USA, explains his investment for SPORT BILD. SPORT BILD: Mr. Lee, how did you follow FCK's successful relegation against Dynamo Dresden? Chien Lee: I watched both games on TV. Those were great games, especially the second leg when Daniel Hanslik scored the lead, goalkeeper Matheo Raab made an excellent save and Philipp Hercher scored the decisive goal. What does promotion mean for your investment? There will be more TV money, more ticket revenue, more revenue from merchandising and sponsorship. That helps the club grow. Now 1. FC Kaiserslautern, the four-time German champions, is reborn. What is sporty possible? We understand football in the long term, there will always be ups and downs. It's great that we made the climb. Now we want to stabilize ourselves in the second division. After that we should have higher ambitions towards the Bundesliga. But everything step by step. Add money now, e.g. B. for new players? Ideas are currently being exchanged for further share purchases or capital increases. But it's still too early to talk about it. You bought your shares long before promotion was certain. What makes the club so attractive? FCK has a huge history, is one of the legends among German clubs. It's impressive how over 49,000 spectators fill the stadium in the 3rd division. The fan base is there and now the club is slowly coming back. I love that! You and your partners own six other clubs, including FC Barnsley, AS Nancy and FC Thun. Have you already been to the Fritz Walter Stadium? I was at the derby against Saarbrücken and saw the energy on the Betzenberg. It was impressive how the team, outnumbered by ten men, still won 3:1. How did the start at FCK go? I've been investing in European football for a few years and Germany has always been on my radar. We're looking for clubs that have the potential to grow with us. Normally we can take control of the club with our people, but in Germany there is a 50+1 rule. So we needed a club where we could rely on the management and local partners. We found that at FCK. What are your plans now? We want to balance the budget first and then help with growth. To do this, we network FCK with the other clubs in our group. There is joint scouting, joint databases and, in the best-case scenario, transfers between the clubs, from which everyone benefits. We can help with sponsorship deals. Basically, we want to bring the FCK to the international market. There's a lot of potential there. Why? As an American group, we have a special advantage in Kaiserslautern. With the US military base in Ramstein and the US military hospital in Landstuhl, there is a huge American community in the region. We want to set up a program to attract more of them than fans to the stadium. How would you actually make money with FCK yourself? First of all: We are not an investor who just throws in millions. We need financial balance, we are different from the owners of Man City or Newcastle, where sovereign wealth funds give the money. If a club has grown with us and then someone comes and makes us an offer for our shares that you can't refuse, we would sell it on at a profit. But we think long-term. We can stay here for five, seven or ten years. We will not withdraw any money in advance during this time. Transfer income or increased sales remain in the club. Do you have plans for further investments in German football? I always keep my eyes open, but for now I'll focus on Kaiserslautern. In general, American investors, hedge funds and investors are very interested in European football. You could see that in the offers for Chelsea. Why is that? The American sports market can no longer grow as strongly as it is saturated. It's different in the European football market.
"I was at the derby against Saarbrücken and saw the energy on the Betzenberg. It was impressive how the team, outnumbered by ten men, still won 3-1" Has to be the greatest achievement ever. In any sport/game.
I was never sure whether to trust Lee a bit more, and put it down to Conway being the root of all the problems. Now though Im just glad we've got rid of them all, and the sooner they are all totally gone from the club, the better!.
Yeah it kind of does really. I wish I could have seen their reactions when they were getting thrown out of the door lol.
