Union SG chairman Alex Muzio has revealed they no longer have any sort of connection to Brighton and Hove Albion, with the Seagulls’ success necessitating a change.
The Union SG owner has been speaking to Het Nieuwsblad, relayed by Voetbal Primeur about the situation and how matters are now very different from what they once were.
Union and Brighton had once been linked thanks to Tony Bloom, who owner both clubs and forged a relationship between the English and Belgian side.
The latter were seen as a sister side for the Premier League club and saw several deals between the two sides down the years, with the likes of Kaoru Mitoma, Deniz Undav, Simon Adingra and several others all moving between them.
Questions were raised about the partnership at the end of last season, though, with both sides qualifying for the Europa League.
UEFA rules say clubs owned by the same parties cannot compete in the same competition and that led Brighton owner Tony Bloom to reducing his stake in Union to a minority one, with UEFA later confirming there were no issues.
It seems that’s not entirely the case, though, with Muzio revealing all in response to a recent banner displayed by Club Brugge fans in their recent clash, which read ‘Union Saint-Gilloise = Brighton, no pounds = no Union’.
“I’ve seen it too. I find that very funny. Do you think that, say, Kevin Mac Allister knows what that’s about? No one here has ever said a word about Brighton to any player,” he said.
“But now the money has to come from me in case of difficulties and no longer from Tony. This summer we had to shift budgets a bit, which meant I had to liquidate some things to get capital. That worked, but I am not as wealthy as Tony.
“We have no players, ex-players or staff members from Brighton. We don’t share anything. How can Brighton benefit from this relationship? Maybe we are more like Charleroi B? Lazare comes from there, while they have Bager, Marcq and Mazzu.”
