It’s said that Hibs shareholder Bill Foley is eager to expand his collection of teams to include a Belgian team.
The owner of Bournemouth, an American businessman, has long desired to expand his Black Knight group of teams to include a national team. He has previously shown varying degrees of interest in attempting to become involved with Gent, KV Oostende, and Sporting Charleroi. Standard Liege interest has now surfaced.
According to Belgian journalist Sacha Tavolieri, Levi Wander—one of the two co-founders and managing partners of 777 Partners, the owners of Standard Liege—has already held discussions with Foley and other potential buyers about selling the Pro League team. According to the allegations, Foley “still wishes to buy a club in Belgium.”
Standard Liege’s season has been awful despite finishing in 10th place in the regular Belgian season pre-split to earn a spot in the Conference League Play-off Group, where they will face Westerlo this weekend, a team in the basement. Since March 2022, Standard has been a member of the 777 stable, which also includes Genoa of the Serie A and CR Vasco da Gama of Brazil.
Notably, they have been attempting to purchase Everton, and approximately eight months ago, 777 and Farhad Moshiri, the owner of Goodison Park, came to an agreement. Along with recent financial difficulties, 777 has battled through several legal challenges in America and hasn’t been able to close the deal as of yet.
Foley’s approach includes developing players in different places and competing with teams that have strong academies. For £6 million, the Black Knight Football Club (BKFC) purchased a 25% share in Hibs, contributing to the funding of the first team’s increased budget as well as improvements at Easter Road and HTC.
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