Michel Louwagie is now seen as the great scapegoat after the idea of the working group for a competition with 18 was brought down on the Board of Directors. The manager of AA Gent sometimes wants to reveal his version of the facts.
“I have been silent for a long time – also because my chairman pulled my sleeve – but now I want to make the facts clear,” he says in HLN. “The smaller clubs in the working group wanted a league with 18 and only three relegants in three years to return to 16. AA Gent and the other representatives of the big clubs already wanted three relegants after one year.”
An interim solution seemed to be in the works. “Everyone understood that 16 would cause problems – it shows now. I called Standard, Mehdi, Luciano, and I thought to myself, ‘We’re going to end up in two parts: 18 and return to 16 after two seasons . ” The next day I suddenly found myself all alone in the working group to go back to 16 after one, maximum two years … “
So the big clubs turned their cart. “Then I did say, after hearing Venanzi, Mehdi and Luciano again: ‘There is no sufficient support to play with 18 for three years. Then 16 is the alternative.”
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