Reports of alleged mismanagement by Pune District Football Association come to light
The owners of the five local clubs came together yet again to raise their voice againstthe local governing body.
A months-long protest by several clubs against the Pune District Football Association (PDFA) took a fresh turn in the events as the said clubs accused the governing body with a couple of allegations in a joint press conference that took place on Tuesday.
Reports from Hindustan Times suggest, a heated discussion betided at the Patrakar Bhavan here in Pune, during which the clubs asserted criticism against the association regarding its mismanagement and wrongdoings. The conference took place together in presence of Shanup Nair (CEO, CMS Falcons), Sohan Singh Sona (secretary, Strikers FC), Vijay Arland (secretary, Fatima FC), Milind Kulkarni (secretary, Phoenix FC) and Fabian Brhamane (team manager, Phoenix FC)- who had earlier also raised their voice against the association.
The audit report in question (Courtesy: Hindustan Times)
Tuesday’s conference was an aftermath of a series of events that happened during the course of December last year. The clubs had decided to file a civil suit against the PDFA seeking to prohibit it from holding the annual general body meeting (AGM) but received a stay order, which was delivered to them on 8th December. However, the copy of the order was apparently declined in the PDFA office.
The allegations made by the clubs go as, the association spent over ₹6 lakh on food but neglected the hospitality of the players by not providing adequate medical facilities. Shanup Nair went on to reveal that, “The audit report of 2017 states an expense of ₹6,28,660 for food.”
“Even if 500 people attended an awards night, which is not the case because only one representative is allowed per team and there are a total of 117 teams. If I have to divide ₹6,28,660 by 500 it comes to ₹1,257.32. The question is, how are they able to spend so much on an awards night rather than the actual game?” he made his point.
Another accusation by the clubs states that the PDFA allegedly awarded promotion for five teams instead of two. Moreover, this move was carried out without the knowledge of any club who naturally asked for justification.
“What they told us was that the top two teams finished the group stage with 18 points and the other three teams, despite not qualifying for the knockouts also had the same number of points and thus qualified. This wasn’t told to us at the AGM earlier, it was clearly stated that only two teams were going to get promoted,” claimed Nair.
Agitated by the PDFA’s apparent wrongdoings, about 100 club owners from Pune arrived at an Indian Super League (ISL) game between FC Pune City and Kerala Blasters, November last year, carrying along with them a ‘Save Pune Football’ banner.
However, to add to their grief, the franchise called up the cops to take control of the situation which also led to the questioning of a few protesters at a nearby station. “It was a completely silent protest without violence at all. What we wanted to do was to get our message across so that people do something to save the game in the city,” added Nair.
The Inside Story: Why FC Basel fans are up in arms about the club's tie-up with India's Chennai City FC
In protest to the club's recent activities, the Muttenzerkurve left the stands of St. Jakob Park for a period of time in the side's recent encounter against FC St. Gallen.
On 6th February, on the back of Minerva Punjab's tie-up with Borussia Monchengladbach, the Indian football fraternity received another boost in the form of FC Basel. The Swiss side and Chennai City announced a partnership, with the Europeans also buying a 26% stake in the I-League outfit, at a cost of around one million euros reportedly.
The move could be a good thing for football in this country in the long run. But currently, the Basel board is on the receiving end of some flak from their fans, especially the ultras.
In their recent Swiss Super League fixture at home against FC St. Gallen, the diehard fans or rather the Muttenzerkurve left the stands in St. Jakob Park after kick-off, leaving banners protesting against the partnership and club’s recent strategy. The ultras came back after the first half, but this incident was reportedly one of its kind in Switzerland.
Usually, fans leave for 10-15 minutes, but this was something different. The fans have never been shy to voice their opinion when it came to decisions made by the club. The banners weren’t against Indian football or Chennai City; they were rather against the club’s strategy and leadership, and also about the side’s future.
In July 2017, Bernhard Burgener took over the club as its new chairman. One of the fundamental promises made by him was to make the side a more locally-oriented club with more players from Basel. He also stated that he wanted Basel to have more international partnerships with top clubs. But since his arrival, the team's performance hasn't been upto the mark. To add to the fans' fury, the club began to invest more in other ventures like eSports, which wasn’t a priority earlier under the previous management. On the other hand, the fan base, especially the ultras, want the money to funnel into the team instead. To top it all, the club didn’t win the 2017-18 league title, for the first time in eight years, coming second behind Young Boys.
According to football scout and Switzerland’s co-head researcher for Football Manager Oliver Zesiger, “The fans have protested the eSports initiative and the general marketing of the club on multiple occasions. The basis of those protests was always that the management should invest more into its core business, which is football. They also criticized the contradiction between the promise of a more local club and the worldwide engagement.”
The main crux of the issue, is if majority of the RotBlau fans are against the club’s tie-up with I-League side Chennai City. When asked regarding this, Zesiger quipped, “This is tough to say. Clearly, the majority of ultras are against the tie-up.”
Swiss publication Basler Zeitung conducted a survey on 11th February. The two options were “the club needs additional income” and “the club needs to concentrate on its core business”. 69.5% chose the latter, while 30.5% went for the former. This shows that around two-thirds of the newspaper’s fanbase, which is mainly locals, are against the club’s recent ventures. These numbers may not reflect the entire fanbase's opinion, but atleast gives a clear picture.
The supporters of this move are of the opinion that this could be beneficial in the future, as Basel are currently not in the Champions League, so the club is not receiving any UCL participation money, and also a reduction in jersey sales, means that the side is in loss right now. But investing in the huge Indian football market so early, could potentially reap benefits in the forseeable future. Also, many of them feel that this investment is useless, as big clubs like Barcelona and Manchester United haven't made similar investments, where profit is less and risk is high. Moreover, the fans were promised partnerships with top clubs, which contradicts with this tie-up in India.
According to Tilman Pauls (Sports editor of Basler Zeitung), "I think this is a smart investment. It does not cost much, maybe the club will benefit from this engagement in India someday. Also, the board wants Basel to have more international relations. It is not actually about finding players in India. With prices low there, the club is probably hoping, the market will explode someday."
He further added, "One million euros is not much. They signed a 17-year-old, who has not played a minute but costed 1.5 million. Money is not the main problem. It is the general direction of the club. Basel was always in touch with their fans. It has changed now with the new president."
It is also a general fear amongst the fans that the club is drifting away from them. The fans want to be close to the club, but they now see the President investing in such ventures, while the team is struggling domestically.
Also, the timing of the partnership between the European club and the Indian outfit was criticised. While, the fans want reinforcement in the team, the club has invested in an unknown system. Meanwhile, the club CEO has already revealed that this investment won’t have any effect on the side’s transfer budget.
According to Andreas Aeschlimann, CEO and founder of RotBlau App (an unofficial FC Basel fans’ application for iOS and Android), “the partnership is one of the many things which are being discussed controversially.”
He also said, “Most of the people here feel that the investment will not benefit the club.”
From a neutral point of view, the reaction of FC Basel fans is understandable, as Indian football is still way behind, and the country is still a ‘sleeping giant’. For the Swiss, the invested amount which is reportedly around one million euros might not be a lot, but for an I-League club, it is an entire year’s budget.
Also, many of the fans reportedly feel that this venture is all about making money, which has been vehemently denied by the club’s board. The fans' anger have been further fuelled by Chennai's partnership with Finnish club JS Hercules. In 2017, both the sides had entered into a contract regarding the development of infrastructure and players in India, which is supposed to continue until 2022. But currently, the contract has informally expired. Also, the club sent three players including Michael Soosairaj to Finland. The Finish coaches found their level of fitness to be below the standard necessity. All these have been recently highlighted by the Swiss media. Also, the club owner Mikko Perala revealed in an interview with BZ Basel that the club are poor in cooperation.
While the Basel fans are against the move, Chennai City could soon be producing the partnership's benefits. Regarding this, CCFC co-owner R Krishnakumar said, "We have heard about the recent fan protests in Switzerland, but it's not going to affect the tie-up. Also, we just received a bulk order of around 700 Chennai City jerseys from someone residing in Basel."
He further stated, "This partnership's main aim is for infrastructural development and expertise. With their help, we are going to develop a proper academy for the youth."
The recent developments in Switzerland, hasn't affected partnership between the two clubs. Both the parties seem pretty serious about the tie-up. FC Basel will obviously hope to gain profits in an unexplored market like India in the future, while Chennai City will aim to develop as a club with the help of this European investment.
Main Sponsor of Basel FC is Novartis- Swiss Pharmaceutical giant.
Novartis is huge in india with yearly revenue from Indian market being close to 700-800 crore rupees. Here they are investing 1 million Euro-which is what 8 crore. This is 1% of what their main sponsor yearly revenue in India.
A Swiss portal reports about an interview with the President of the Finnish club, JS Hercules (mentioned in the Khelnow report above) and his explanation about why the tie-up with Chennai City FC failed. It is a translation of the report (translation done by Google translate) which is in originally in Swiss German/German I guess. The English is not impeccable but one can make sense of the basic facts
Mikko Perälä cooperated with his Finnish club with Chennai City - now he warns the FCB
Mikko Perälä is president of the Finnish club JS Hercules. In 2017 he entered into a partnership with Rohit Ramesh and Chennai City FC, which according to the contract will run until 2022. However, nothing came of the big plans.
As the bz reported last week, the project failed. When Mikko Perälä learns that FC Basel is acquiring a 26 percent stake in Chennai City, he will contact him by e-mail. So that FC Basel does not repeat its mistakes, Mikko Perälä wants to talk about his "partnership" with the Indians.
Why did JS Hercules enter into a partnership with Chennai City in 2017?
Mikko Perälä: Even though we are not world-famous as a semi-professional third division soccer team, our modern training methods and know-how in this area are also interesting for larger clubs. It was similar to Chennai City, as it is now at FC Basel. A friend of mine made contact with the owners Rohit Ramesh and Krishna Raghavan. The deal looked good on paper. But unfortunately, things never really got started.
Why not? I do not want to blame anyone, but if both sides are not fully committed, nothing happens.
Why is that? The working culture in India is a completely different one than in Finland. It was not the first time I've done business in South Asia. That's why I can say that it does not do any good if you get involved here, but they do not pick up the phone in India.
Why did you still enter the deal? I saw a lot of potential in Chennai City, just like FC Basel. With the media house in the background, the club has the opportunity to reach many people.
Sporting lags India but far behind.
The sportive level is modest. There is no doubt, everyone knows that. You do not have to look for the next Lionel Messi in India. That was not our goal and FC Basel should not hope for that either. Much more exciting are the crowds. Traditionally, Indian parents attach great importance to education, but now also to sports education. It was not like that for a long time. Today, especially in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, there is a great demand for professional youth sports. In it I saw a good deal. Finnish and Indian sponsors should also benefit from the partnership. I wrote a concept for all these things, but that was never done.
In the end, not a single Indian company went to Finland and vice versa. Why?
The plans were only on paper. I was in India in May 2017 and did some things locally. Then I organized various events in Finland. With the ambassador and with Finnish companies active in India. Several times I have organized visas for our partners. Rohit was even scheduled as a keynote speaker at a business event. But he never showed up. Unfortunately, he never came to Finland in the end.
Is the president unreliable?
No. I want to emphasize that I like both owners very much. I too should have been in India more often, so that the partnership starts well. But the time was too short for that. Without someone who is on the ground full time in India, it does not work. It's our job to bring that ass kick mentality to India and push it all the time. Such a project can not be run from a distance by phone or e-mail. That does not work. Because we did not have these resources, our partnership failed.
FC Basel sends an expert to India with Massimo Ceccaroni.But he will only be there for a few months. Is that enough?
I think it's important that there is always someone on site. The Indians need a Swiss watch to follow the agreed plan and organize everything. If that's not the case, nothing happens. The owners of Chennai City have many other projects. Cooperation is not their main business. Rohit Ramesh is responsible for the legacy of a 141-year-old media house. He is a very busy man.
So FC Basel will not achieve more than JS Hercules?
I do not want to say that. The region has great potential and the media are on the side of the club. Chennai City has a bright future ahead of you in doing the grassroots work. I still believe the partnership could work. But the whole is a long-term process. There will be no success story from one day to the next.
What is in the contract between Chennai City and JS Hercules?
It was about business, the common development of infrastructure in India and the development of players. The latter was the only thing that took place. Chennai sent three players to Finland with whom we worked. The Indian footballers should have stayed longer, but after four weeks they left again. I think the Chennai side wanted to save costs.
The contract is valid for another three years. Is the partnership finished today anyway?
Yes, the contract has practically expired by itself. I have been sending text messages to Chennai City owners over and over again, but they have not responded for a year.
Do you believe that Basel threatens the same fate?
I hope they make it better, so in the end both clubs benefit. But it takes time and human resources on the ground. It is true that Basel acquired shares other than JS Hercules. That shows that they are serious. But the decisions are still made by others. That's why the project could end up like Chennai City and JS Hercules.
Comments
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/writing-history-by-ruining-it/articleshow/67977450.cms
Reports of alleged mismanagement by Pune District Football Association come to light
The owners of the five local clubs came together yet again to raise their voice against the local governing body.
A months-long protest by several clubs against the Pune District Football Association (PDFA) took a fresh turn in the events as the said clubs accused the governing body with a couple of allegations in a joint press conference that took place on Tuesday.
Reports from Hindustan Times suggest, a heated discussion betided at the Patrakar Bhavan here in Pune, during which the clubs asserted criticism against the association regarding its mismanagement and wrongdoings. The conference took place together in presence of Shanup Nair (CEO, CMS Falcons), Sohan Singh Sona (secretary, Strikers FC), Vijay Arland (secretary, Fatima FC), Milind Kulkarni (secretary, Phoenix FC) and Fabian Brhamane (team manager, Phoenix FC)- who had earlier also raised their voice against the association.
The audit report in question (Courtesy: Hindustan Times)
Tuesday’s conference was an aftermath of a series of events that happened during the course of December last year. The clubs had decided to file a civil suit against the PDFA seeking to prohibit it from holding the annual general body meeting (AGM) but received a stay order, which was delivered to them on 8th December. However, the copy of the order was apparently declined in the PDFA office.
The allegations made by the clubs go as, the association spent over ₹6 lakh on food but neglected the hospitality of the players by not providing adequate medical facilities. Shanup Nair went on to reveal that, “The audit report of 2017 states an expense of ₹6,28,660 for food.”
“Even if 500 people attended an awards night, which is not the case because only one representative is allowed per team and there are a total of 117 teams. If I have to divide ₹6,28,660 by 500 it comes to ₹1,257.32. The question is, how are they able to spend so much on an awards night rather than the actual game?” he made his point.
Another accusation by the clubs states that the PDFA allegedly awarded promotion for five teams instead of two. Moreover, this move was carried out without the knowledge of any club who naturally asked for justification.
“What they told us was that the top two teams finished the group stage with 18 points and the other three teams, despite not qualifying for the knockouts also had the same number of points and thus qualified. This wasn’t told to us at the AGM earlier, it was clearly stated that only two teams were going to get promoted,” claimed Nair.
Agitated by the PDFA’s apparent wrongdoings, about 100 club owners from Pune arrived at an Indian Super League (ISL) game between FC Pune City and Kerala Blasters, November last year, carrying along with them a ‘Save Pune Football’ banner.
However, to add to their grief, the franchise called up the cops to take control of the situation which also led to the questioning of a few protesters at a nearby station. “It was a completely silent protest without violence at all. What we wanted to do was to get our message across so that people do something to save the game in the city,” added Nair.
The Inside Story: Why FC Basel fans are up in arms about the club's tie-up with India's Chennai City FC
In protest to the club's recent activities, the Muttenzerkurve left the stands of St. Jakob Park for a period of time in the side's recent encounter against FC St. Gallen.
On 6th February, on the back of Minerva Punjab's tie-up with Borussia Monchengladbach, the Indian football fraternity received another boost in the form of FC Basel. The Swiss side and Chennai City announced a partnership, with the Europeans also buying a 26% stake in the I-League outfit, at a cost of around one million euros reportedly.
The move could be a good thing for football in this country in the long run. But currently, the Basel board is on the receiving end of some flak from their fans, especially the ultras.
In their recent Swiss Super League fixture at home against FC St. Gallen, the diehard fans or rather the Muttenzerkurve left the stands in St. Jakob Park after kick-off, leaving banners protesting against the partnership and club’s recent strategy. The ultras came back after the first half, but this incident was reportedly one of its kind in Switzerland.
Usually, fans leave for 10-15 minutes, but this was something different. The fans have never been shy to voice their opinion when it came to decisions made by the club. The banners weren’t against Indian football or Chennai City; they were rather against the club’s strategy and leadership, and also about the side’s future.
In July 2017, Bernhard Burgener took over the club as its new chairman. One of the fundamental promises made by him was to make the side a more locally-oriented club with more players from Basel. He also stated that he wanted Basel to have more international partnerships with top clubs. But since his arrival, the team's performance hasn't been upto the mark. To add to the fans' fury, the club began to invest more in other ventures like eSports, which wasn’t a priority earlier under the previous management. On the other hand, the fan base, especially the ultras, want the money to funnel into the team instead. To top it all, the club didn’t win the 2017-18 league title, for the first time in eight years, coming second behind Young Boys.
According to football scout and Switzerland’s co-head researcher for Football Manager Oliver Zesiger, “The fans have protested the eSports initiative and the general marketing of the club on multiple occasions. The basis of those protests was always that the management should invest more into its core business, which is football. They also criticized the contradiction between the promise of a more local club and the worldwide engagement.”
The main crux of the issue, is if majority of the RotBlau fans are against the club’s tie-up with I-League side Chennai City. When asked regarding this, Zesiger quipped, “This is tough to say. Clearly, the majority of ultras are against the tie-up.”
Swiss publication Basler Zeitung conducted a survey on 11th February. The two options were “the club needs additional income” and “the club needs to concentrate on its core business”. 69.5% chose the latter, while 30.5% went for the former. This shows that around two-thirds of the newspaper’s fanbase, which is mainly locals, are against the club’s recent ventures. These numbers may not reflect the entire fanbase's opinion, but atleast gives a clear picture.
The supporters of this move are of the opinion that this could be beneficial in the future, as Basel are currently not in the Champions League, so the club is not receiving any UCL participation money, and also a reduction in jersey sales, means that the side is in loss right now. But investing in the huge Indian football market so early, could potentially reap benefits in the forseeable future. Also, many of them feel that this investment is useless, as big clubs like Barcelona and Manchester United haven't made similar investments, where profit is less and risk is high. Moreover, the fans were promised partnerships with top clubs, which contradicts with this tie-up in India.
According to Tilman Pauls (Sports editor of Basler Zeitung), "I think this is a smart investment. It does not cost much, maybe the club will benefit from this engagement in India someday. Also, the board wants Basel to have more international relations. It is not actually about finding players in India. With prices low there, the club is probably hoping, the market will explode someday."
He further added, "One million euros is not much. They signed a 17-year-old, who has not played a minute but costed 1.5 million. Money is not the main problem. It is the general direction of the club. Basel was always in touch with their fans. It has changed now with the new president."
It is also a general fear amongst the fans that the club is drifting away from them. The fans want to be close to the club, but they now see the President investing in such ventures, while the team is struggling domestically.
Also, the timing of the partnership between the European club and the Indian outfit was criticised. While, the fans want reinforcement in the team, the club has invested in an unknown system. Meanwhile, the club CEO has already revealed that this investment won’t have any effect on the side’s transfer budget.
According to Andreas Aeschlimann, CEO and founder of RotBlau App (an unofficial FC Basel fans’ application for iOS and Android), “the partnership is one of the many things which are being discussed controversially.”
He also said, “Most of the people here feel that the investment will not benefit the club.”
From a neutral point of view, the reaction of FC Basel fans is understandable, as Indian football is still way behind, and the country is still a ‘sleeping giant’. For the Swiss, the invested amount which is reportedly around one million euros might not be a lot, but for an I-League club, it is an entire year’s budget.
Also, many of the fans reportedly feel that this venture is all about making money, which has been vehemently denied by the club’s board. The fans' anger have been further fuelled by Chennai's partnership with Finnish club JS Hercules. In 2017, both the sides had entered into a contract regarding the development of infrastructure and players in India, which is supposed to continue until 2022. But currently, the contract has informally expired. Also, the club sent three players including Michael Soosairaj to Finland. The Finish coaches found their level of fitness to be below the standard necessity. All these have been recently highlighted by the Swiss media. Also, the club owner Mikko Perala revealed in an interview with BZ Basel that the club are poor in cooperation.
While the Basel fans are against the move, Chennai City could soon be producing the partnership's benefits. Regarding this, CCFC co-owner R Krishnakumar said, "We have heard about the recent fan protests in Switzerland, but it's not going to affect the tie-up. Also, we just received a bulk order of around 700 Chennai City jerseys from someone residing in Basel."
He further stated, "This partnership's main aim is for infrastructural development and expertise. With their help, we are going to develop a proper academy for the youth."
The recent developments in Switzerland, hasn't affected partnership between the two clubs. Both the parties seem pretty serious about the tie-up. FC Basel will obviously hope to gain profits in an unexplored market like India in the future, while Chennai City will aim to develop as a club with the help of this European investment.
Hahaha probably for another protest .
Mikko Perälä cooperated with his Finnish club with Chennai City - now he warns the FCB
Mikko Perälä is president of the Finnish club JS Hercules. In 2017 he entered into a partnership with Rohit Ramesh and Chennai City FC, which according to the contract will run until 2022. However, nothing came of the big plans.
As the bz reported last week, the project failed. When Mikko Perälä learns that FC Basel is acquiring a 26 percent stake in Chennai City, he will contact him by e-mail. So that FC Basel does not repeat its mistakes, Mikko Perälä wants to talk about his "partnership" with the Indians.
Why did JS Hercules enter into a partnership with Chennai City in 2017?
Mikko Perälä: Even though we are not world-famous as a semi-professional third division soccer team, our modern training methods and know-how in this area are also interesting for larger clubs. It was similar to Chennai City, as it is now at FC Basel. A friend of mine made contact with the owners Rohit Ramesh and Krishna Raghavan. The deal looked good on paper. But unfortunately, things never really got started.
Why not?
I do not want to blame anyone, but if both sides are not fully committed, nothing happens.
Why is that?
The working culture in India is a completely different one than in Finland. It was not the first time I've done business in South Asia. That's why I can say that it does not do any good if you get involved here, but they do not pick up the phone in India.
Why did you still enter the deal?
I saw a lot of potential in Chennai City, just like FC Basel. With the media house in the background, the club has the opportunity to reach many people.
Sporting lags India but far behind.
The sportive level is modest. There is no doubt, everyone knows that. You do not have to look for the next Lionel Messi in India. That was not our goal and FC Basel should not hope for that either. Much more exciting are the crowds. Traditionally, Indian parents attach great importance to education, but now also to sports education. It was not like that for a long time. Today, especially in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, there is a great demand for professional youth sports. In it I saw a good deal. Finnish and Indian sponsors should also benefit from the partnership. I wrote a concept for all these things, but that was never done.
In the end, not a single Indian company went to Finland and vice versa. Why?
The plans were only on paper. I was in India in May 2017 and did some things locally. Then I organized various events in Finland. With the ambassador and with Finnish companies active in India. Several times I have organized visas for our partners. Rohit was even scheduled as a keynote speaker at a business event. But he never showed up. Unfortunately, he never came to Finland in the end.
Is the president unreliable?
No. I want to emphasize that I like both owners very much. I too should have been in India more often, so that the partnership starts well. But the time was too short for that. Without someone who is on the ground full time in India, it does not work. It's our job to bring that ass kick mentality to India and push it all the time. Such a project can not be run from a distance by phone or e-mail. That does not work. Because we did not have these resources, our partnership failed.
FC Basel sends an expert to India with Massimo Ceccaroni.But he will only be there for a few months. Is that enough?
I think it's important that there is always someone on site. The Indians need a Swiss watch to follow the agreed plan and organize everything. If that's not the case, nothing happens. The owners of Chennai City have many other projects. Cooperation is not their main business. Rohit Ramesh is responsible for the legacy of a 141-year-old media house. He is a very busy man.
So FC Basel will not achieve more than JS Hercules?
I do not want to say that. The region has great potential and the media are on the side of the club. Chennai City has a bright future ahead of you in doing the grassroots work. I still believe the partnership could work. But the whole is a long-term process. There will be no success story from one day to the next.
What is in the contract between Chennai City and JS Hercules?
It was about business, the common development of infrastructure in India and the development of players. The latter was the only thing that took place. Chennai sent three players to Finland with whom we worked. The Indian footballers should have stayed longer, but after four weeks they left again. I think the Chennai side wanted to save costs.
The contract is valid for another three years. Is the partnership finished today anyway?
Yes, the contract has practically expired by itself. I have been sending text messages to Chennai City owners over and over again, but they have not responded for a year.
Do you believe that Basel threatens the same fate?
I hope they make it better, so in the end both clubs benefit. But it takes time and human resources on the ground. It is true that Basel acquired shares other than JS Hercules. That shows that they are serious. But the decisions are still made by others. That's why the project could end up like Chennai City and JS Hercules.
https://www.bzbasel.ch/sport/basel/mikko-peraelae-kooperierte-mit-seinem-finnischen-verein-mit-chennai-city-jetzt-warnt-er-den-fcb-134083768