Recently, Ludo Philippaerts and Philippe Bormans, the president of Belgian soccer club Union, met to discuss the differences and similarities between equestrian sports and soccer. "In fact, a professional stable is enormously similar to a soccer club," responds Bormans, who is a passionate horse breeder. "For me, though, it remains a hobby that got out of hand..."
"I'm a farmer's son, so as a kid I had some ponies. Afterwards also some horses ... so the interest in the sport was there from childhood. As a young boy I traded a bit. And that gradually took over from my school work..." continues Bormans. "But during my work there was less and less time to combine things, so I switched to breeding horses. I was not earning enough from both to really make it my livelihood..."
Soccer and horse racing
"Really nice to see how a professional stable is a real business," Bormans responds. "We have to," Philippaerts adds. "We have invested heavily in our stable in recent years to be able to support our children to the fullest. We can't keep standing still."
"It's nice to see and what strikes me is that the similarities with soccer are definitely there." continues Bormans. "You have the need of the infrastructure that has to be optimal, your horses are our players, also there is the occasional transfer there (laughs). And to make those two pay off, you need a professional organization."
Giving children equal opportunities
"How do you basically do it to give your sons equal opportunities?"
"That's really a question I get a lot. It's not obvious," Philippaerts answers. "Nicola and Olivier basically got into it from a young age. Recently, Thibault also got into the business. Our youngest son, Anthony is currently doing an internship at Stal Hendrix in the Netherlands. But I suspect he will soon want to get into the business as well. So concretely, we really need to expand. Therefore, we need to look for more horses and start expanding our business..."
"I can't make the comparison with my sons, but I can see the similarity with soccer," Bormans adds. "When we have young soccer players they are sometimes loaned out to another club only to come back with new visions and introspection...that's a smart approach!"
Scouting is also equal
"At Union we work a lot with data. We mainly scout on dates, only afterwards scouts go on-site to look at the potential new players. This is mainly because we work with relatively small budgets. However, an effective deal is not always guaranteed...""With us, data doesn't say a lot, it's a little less decisive. We have full time scouts who are constantly on the job. Afterwards, the vet has to come again to check everything..." counters Philippaerts. "With us this was indeed identical, although there is recent movement in that. More and more the medical history is being looked at to ensure a correct "examination" of the players. I also understand that data plays a less important role for you. For us it's a matter of 22 players per game, for you it's several 100 horses. So for us the cost of scouts would be much higher.... so I do understand that logic."
Source: Reportage Equibel / equnews