Legendary football club on the brink of collapse

Vejle Boldklub has until the end of the month

Sep 22, 2014

One of Denmark’s most historic football clubs, NordicBet Liga outfit Vejle Boldklub (VB), is teetering on the cusp of financial collapse and could end up being demoted to the amateur Danmarksserien league unless it receives a substantial cash injection by the end of this month.

The club, which has been in the country's second tier since getting relegated from the Superliga in 2009, has struggled financially in recent years and been unable to attract the necessary sponsorship funds to continue.

“We haven’t been able to obtain a positive financial result due to the sporting targets not being reached over the years,” Lars Skou, the departing chairman of the club's board, explained in a press release.

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The club – which over the years has discovered a number of legendary Danish footballers, including Allan Simonsen, John Sivebæk, Thomas Gravesen and Brian Steen Nielsen – has won the Danish top division five times and lifted the Danish Cup six times. It also reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1978.

Allan Simonsen – the little forward who won the 1977 Ballon d'Or, the trophy given for Europe’s best footballer, and started and finished his illustrious career at Vejle – will be devastated if the club goes under.

“It would crush my heart because it’s my club,” Simonsen told Jyllands-Posten newspaper.” I have always been around the club and it would hit me hard if Vejle Boldklub were to go bankrupt.

VB was originally founded in 1891 as a cricket club. It wasn't until 1902 that it started to play football.