A new Chinese owner arrived at the Dutch football club ADO Den Haag in early '14, "promising multimillion-dollar investments and better days ahead," according to James Montague of the N.Y. TIMES. The money to buy the team arrived a few months late, "but it did arrive in the end, along with firm deadlines for further investments and a handful of new signings." Wealthy businessman and new Owner Wang Hui "promised to turn the team into a powerhouse." Wang "seemed like fun, cheering wildly for goals from his box at ADO's Kyocera Stadium and throwing up his hands in disbelief whenever the team conceded a penalty." ADO's fan association Chair Jacco van Leeuwen said, "Wang was very enthusiastic." But 18 months later, "the supporters' patience is wearing thin." ADO Den Haag is "mired in the middle of the Dutch standings, the flashy signings have stopped, and Wang has missed several deadlines to make payments he promised." Some at the club fear that Wang "has lost interest in it." Wang, in an interview in his Beijing office, said that he was "merely recalculating his strategy, but he also pointedly said that he was under no obligation to do more than he had." Wang: "After I pay the takeover, the club is mine. It is my business in terms of how much I will invest in the club." Wang "bought a 98 percent stake in ADO" for a reported $8.9M. The Hague's municipal exec committee member and Politician Tom de Bruijn said, "At the time, we had a clear preference this was sold to local businessmen." The municipality owns Kyocera Stadium and "had a so-called golden share in the club, meaning it could block any purchase on one condition: that the club find another buyer willing to pay the same price for the shares." But "no local investors came forward, and after verifying that Wang's finances were legitimate, the club was sold."
MISSED DEADLINES: The greatest tensions were "related to finances." Deadlines for Wang to make a further $4.1M investment in the club in Sept. and Nov. "were missed." More important, "the club was forced to admit that it had not been able to speak with Wang." A third deadline, Dec. 18, "had been agreed up on for the money, shortly after a league match against Willem II, but that, too, passed without payment." Wang "maintained that his plans for revitalizing ADO remain unchanged." He said, "I hope that ADO can get in to the top five clubs in Eredivisie in three years -- that's my goal." When asked specifically about the missed payments, Wang said that the money was "not a promise because I don't need to promise anything to anyone in terms of investing more money into my own club" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/3).
