By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 22 – Polish businessman Jerzy Wozniak has taken just over 96% stake in Flota Swinoujscie, which turned itself into a private limited company. The club’s association holds 3% of the shares, and the Polish city, which previously financed by side, was allocated a 1% stake.
“The club has never had a private owner. It had been managed by the association,” said Malgorzata Dorsz, the chief executive of Flota Swinoujscie.
With a new investor onboard, municipal authorities of Swinoujscie hope the troubled football club will start a new chapter and put its finances in order. The value of the shares and the sum invested in the club has not been disclosed.
According to Dorsz, handling Flota’s debt is a top priority for the club’s new owners.
The side currently ranks fifth among the clubs competing in Poland’s I Liga, the second tier of the country’s professional football league.
An earlier attempt to sell the club’s I Liga licence to another Polish side, Stal Rzeszow, was blocked by the Polish Football Association (PZPN), which opposed the planned transaction, in July 2014. Stal currently plays in the III Liga, the country’s fourth tier.
Earlier this year, local media reported that a number of foreign-based investors were interested in acquiring the Polish club. These were said to include an unnamed Portuguese investor.
Flota’s stadium in Swinoujscie has a capacity of 3,070 seats. The facility was partly modernised in 2010.
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