Belgians boost foreign portfolio
Belgian side Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen became the fourth overseas club to sign a collaboration deal with Charlton on Wednesday afternoon.
The agreement with the current Belgian Cup holders is the latest linking the Addicks with clubs across the world, from the New Zealand Knights to Finland's MyPa 47 and Shanghai Zobon, of China.
But Charlton chief executive Peter Varney said the club's global development programme would now take stock of the situation before expanding further.
"This link with Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen forms a very important part of our overseas strategy, although it is going to be the last collaboration agreement for the time being,” said Varney, who signed the deal alongside deputy plc chairman Robert Whitehand.
"The Belgian league is ideal for players not quite ready for the challenge of the English Premiership, and enables players to obtain a sound grounding in professional football of a high standard.”
He added: "Beerschot have a very impressive stadium and the atmosphere for games is quite special."
A Belgian government delegation spent two days in England at the end of October and visited The Valley for the Premiership match against Bolton Wanderers, officials of Germinal Beerschot having already been to The Valley earlier in the month.
Els van Weert, the Belgian Secretary of State for Social Economy and Sustainable Development, was recently interviewed on Belgian national television and hailed the Addicks as the leaders in community work throughout Europe.
Steve Waggott, chief executive of the Charlton Charitable Trust, said: "Once again it's Charlton that is being asked about the best way to use the power of football to reach government objectives in terms of health and social inclusion projects, at home and abroad.
"We are now examining a range of initiatives and links, and are looking forward to helping and working with both the club and the country.”
The new deal comes just days after the club announced that former Addicks first-team coach Les Reed would be overseeing the club's global links - which also extend to Spain and America - on a consultancy basis.
Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen were founded in 1999 when two other clubs, Beerschot and Germinal Ekeren merged.
Beerschot had a long and rich history in Belgium and won the league on seven occasions, taking the title three years in succession between 1924-26, and finishing runners-up seven more times.
The Belgian league is ideal for players not quite ready for the challenge of the English Premiership, and enables players to obtain a sound grounding in professional football of a high standard.
And while Germinal couldn't match their new partner's league record, they were perhaps the more dominant side in more recent times, lifting the Belgian Cup in 1997 following a 4-2 win against Anderlecht after extra-time.
Germinal also finished runners-up in 1990 and 95, while Beerschot lifted the trophy in 1971 and 79.
Although the club, as Germinal Beerschot, finished 14th in the Jupiler League last season, that was on the back of successive seventh, sixth, ninth places.
And it's likely that their attention was diverted from the league during the latter stages of the 2004/05 campaign as they progressed through the cup, eventually meeting league winners Club Brugge in the final.
The season ended in success as, despite their goalkeeper suffering a broken rib midway through the match, Germinal Beerschot won 2-1 to lift the new club's first major trophy.
That ensured qualification for this season's UEFA Cup, but although they exited at the first-round stage in September to French club Marseille, it took penalties (after two 0-0 stalemates and extra-time) for the 2004 finalists to beat the Belgian outfit.
The defeat formed part of a disappointing opening to the campaign for Germinal Beerschot, who are currently 17th in the 18-team top flight.
They parted with their cup-winning manager, Marc Brys, in September and appointed new man Jos Daerden, whose son, Koen Daerden, currently plays for the Belgium national team.
Former Germinal Beerschot players include Blackburn Rovers defender and current South Africa captain Aaron Mokoena, highly-rated striker Wesley Sonck, who struck 11 goals in 22 games before moving on to Racing Genk, Ajax and then Borussia Monchengladbach, and goalkeeper Maikel Aerts, who was in the Feyenoord squad that visited The Valley for a pre-season friendly in August.
- Find out about all the Addicks' overseas projects here.
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