FC Edmonton Still Holding Out For New Owner: ‘We Need To Get Decisions Made’
Excerpts of the following story by John Jacques in the Northern Tribune are from July 18, 2022 https://northerntribune.ca/fc-edmonton-owner-alan-koch/. For the full story please visit the Northern Tribune.
It’s been about a month since we confirmed that a prospective new owner was interested in acquiring FC Edmonton, the storied CPL side which has now operated without an investor at the helm for about a season-and-a-half.
Despite a shoestring budget, a tumultuous offseason, and a squad mostly comprised of inexperienced intra-league loanees, head coach Alan Koch has assembled a team that has proven competitive on the pitch, even if wins remain hard to come by.
So when people heard rumours about new ownership, you can bet Koch was all ears with the rest of us – though many assumed he had inside look that he actually hadn’t.
“Every time there is a rumour, imagine what my phone is like,” he laughed on the Wyngback Radio Podcast. “The texts, the calls, the messages! The day I believe anything has actually happened is the day the new owner actually picks up the phone and phones me. I look forward to it because we need that day as quickly as possible, so that we can start to build and plan for the future together.”
Koch explicitly stated that there’s still nothing for him to confirm or deny, as he’s received no direct contact about a new buyer himself – though he hopes that such a call comes in the near future.
“I’m very proactive, I’m a planner. That’s the difficult part of this project for me personally, is that almost since the very beginning since I’ve got this job I haven’t been able to plan with the people around me. That’s part of what we would all like to do and what we all need to do in order to set us up for success.”
The earlier revelation that FC Edmonton was without an owner was quickly followed by a tumultuous offseason that saw the club retain just two academy talents. It’s been a rollercoaster rebuild in the time since, with the league granting FC Edmonton a loan limit exemption that has seen some fourteen players arrive from other clubs.
For the rest of the story by John Jacques in the Northern Tribune from July 18, 2022, please go to: https://northerntribune.ca/fc-edmonton-owner-alan-koch/.