FM_TNSSO
Member
- Joined
- May 10, 2018
- Messages
- 2,924
- Reaction score
- 3,664
- Points
- 113
Fortuna Sittard
It's taken me a good couple of days to identify the club I want to take over for my new FM24 career. I must have spent hours looking through clubs across Europe, reading up about different teams online, and I must have been lacking some serious motivation as nobody was taking my fancy. That was until I found Fortuna Sittard in Holland and there was a few things that appealed to me about this club and have inspired me into taking over as their new manager. First and foremost, I do like a good club badge and Fortuna's caught my eye for sure...might not be everyone's cup of tea but I like it!
Also on the common aesthetics side of things, I liked their kits too. The home and third kit keep it simple but look sleek, whilst the second kit is a bit funkier and cool.
Then other thing I liked about Fortuna Sittard was the fact they have never won the top division or the cup in Holland, so there is definitely history to be made by winning these competitions for the first time. They've lifted the second tier title on three occasions but that is as good as it has ever really got for Fortuna.
Other things that appealed to me about this club included some youth development success in the 90s, a whole host of financial issues, a lottery donation, a new owner and being saved by COVID (it's certainly been an interesting ride for the Fortuna Sittard fans)...
* Although not known for bringing through the most talented youth recently, their system has previously developed players including Mark Van Bommel, Kevin Hofland and Fernando Ricksen.
* The club has had it's fair share of financial turmoil between the years of 2002-2016. The team was facing bankruptcy back in 2003, when two of the club's fans won the Dutch lottery and donated their entire winnings to the club! In addition to that, the club sold off their new stadium to clear their remaining debts.
* Financial difficulties resurfaced again though and in 2009, the KNVB announced it would withdraw the club's license to play for the 2010-11 season, although this decision was eventually revoked. Despite ongoing financial difficulties, the club did gradually start to recover financially and with that came some sporting success as they came very close to promotion back to the top tier several times over the next few seasons, making the playoffs twice.
* In 2016, financial problems arose again though, which prompted the takeover of the club by Turkish investor, Isitan Gun, who had previously been the COO at Galatasaray. Things started to look up for the club again and in the 2017/18 season, they were promoted back to the Eredivisie for the first time in 16 years, finishing 2nd behind Jong Ajax (who obviously can't be promoted).
* The club then had it's share of good luck as they finished 16th in the league in 2019/20 and effectively should have been at least in the relegation playoff and possibly go down - however the COVID 19 pandemic meant the season was declared void and they remained in the top tier.
* Since then, it's been 3 bottom half finishes for Fortuna, narrowly beating off the threat of relegation each year.
Enter Chris Ball...and I hope to now take this club to heights it has never seen before and develop them into one of the top clubs in the country competing with the likes of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord season upon season and hopefully going on to make some sort of mark in Europe as well...eventually!
It's taken me a good couple of days to identify the club I want to take over for my new FM24 career. I must have spent hours looking through clubs across Europe, reading up about different teams online, and I must have been lacking some serious motivation as nobody was taking my fancy. That was until I found Fortuna Sittard in Holland and there was a few things that appealed to me about this club and have inspired me into taking over as their new manager. First and foremost, I do like a good club badge and Fortuna's caught my eye for sure...might not be everyone's cup of tea but I like it!
Also on the common aesthetics side of things, I liked their kits too. The home and third kit keep it simple but look sleek, whilst the second kit is a bit funkier and cool.
Then other thing I liked about Fortuna Sittard was the fact they have never won the top division or the cup in Holland, so there is definitely history to be made by winning these competitions for the first time. They've lifted the second tier title on three occasions but that is as good as it has ever really got for Fortuna.
Other things that appealed to me about this club included some youth development success in the 90s, a whole host of financial issues, a lottery donation, a new owner and being saved by COVID (it's certainly been an interesting ride for the Fortuna Sittard fans)...
* Although not known for bringing through the most talented youth recently, their system has previously developed players including Mark Van Bommel, Kevin Hofland and Fernando Ricksen.
* The club has had it's fair share of financial turmoil between the years of 2002-2016. The team was facing bankruptcy back in 2003, when two of the club's fans won the Dutch lottery and donated their entire winnings to the club! In addition to that, the club sold off their new stadium to clear their remaining debts.
* Financial difficulties resurfaced again though and in 2009, the KNVB announced it would withdraw the club's license to play for the 2010-11 season, although this decision was eventually revoked. Despite ongoing financial difficulties, the club did gradually start to recover financially and with that came some sporting success as they came very close to promotion back to the top tier several times over the next few seasons, making the playoffs twice.
* In 2016, financial problems arose again though, which prompted the takeover of the club by Turkish investor, Isitan Gun, who had previously been the COO at Galatasaray. Things started to look up for the club again and in the 2017/18 season, they were promoted back to the Eredivisie for the first time in 16 years, finishing 2nd behind Jong Ajax (who obviously can't be promoted).
* The club then had it's share of good luck as they finished 16th in the league in 2019/20 and effectively should have been at least in the relegation playoff and possibly go down - however the COVID 19 pandemic meant the season was declared void and they remained in the top tier.
* Since then, it's been 3 bottom half finishes for Fortuna, narrowly beating off the threat of relegation each year.
Enter Chris Ball...and I hope to now take this club to heights it has never seen before and develop them into one of the top clubs in the country competing with the likes of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord season upon season and hopefully going on to make some sort of mark in Europe as well...eventually!
Last edited: