Bournemouth’s billionaire owner, Bill Foley, has said he is confident the club can qualify for Europe within five years and that they should take inspiration from Brighton’s history-making rise. The American, who this week celebrated a year since taking control of the club, also insisted his faith in the head coach, Andoni Iraola, never wavered. Bournemouth, 14th in the Premier League, have won four of their past five matches and are looking up the table after a difficult start.
Bournemouth finished 15th last season but sacked Gary O’Neil in June in favour of hiring Iraola, who won plaudits for his work at Rayo Vallecano. At the time Foley said Iraola was “the right man to lead our next chapter”. Asked about his overarching vision for the club in a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, Foley said: “I want Bournemouth to play in Europe – that’s our goal. It’s not going to be easy but I’m confident we can get there. Brighton are a great inspiration, they do a terrific job. I certainly think we can be in Europe within five years.”
Asked whether his trust in Iraola was tested after Bournemouth failed to win any of their first nine league matches, the 79-year-old replied: “We were always sticking with the plan. I was sticking with Andoni … honestly, I didn’t care if we lost every game. I am convinced that his style of play is exactly what we need to be competitive, to be the small guy and compete with the big guys. We are not a sovereign wealth fund and we don’t have that kind of backing, so we have to do it differently. I was totally on board and convinced he was the bright solution for us and he has proven me correct. I was patient. I knew we made the right decision.”
Brighton qualified for Europe last season and will seal a place in the Europa League last 16 if they beat Marseille on Thursday. Brighton moved into a state-of-the-art training complex in 2014, home to a category one academy, three years after moving into the Amex Stadium, and Bournemouth are taking similar steps to improve their infrastructure. They hope to move in to their new training facility next October and to begin work on a new stadium, on the site of their existing training base which is next door to their current ground, the following year.
“I don’t believe we can get the stadium under way until probably 2025,” Foley said. “If we accomplish that then we could be finished by possibly the summer of 2027. That would be perfect and ready for the 2027-28 season. That is probably our goal, our target. The current plan is for it to be 18,500 in capacity, which doesn’t sound that big an increase, but it is going to have the right hospitality, the right restaurants and it is going to be a major upgrade.”
Bournemouth rejected an inquiry from West Ham for Dominic Solanke last summer and Foley is adamant the in-form forward will be staying put in January; only Erling Haaland, Son Heung-min, Mohamed Salah and Jarrod Bowen can better Solanke’s eight-goal tally this season. “I would say that when other teams come knocking at this point, our door is closed and it is bolted,” Foley said. “You can never say never – and we have to be mindful of financial fair play because we can’t just spend all the time and sometimes you have to make an economic decision – but I like our team. I’d like to see what this team is like when everyone is available to play from the team we designed last January and last summer.”
Foley, who owns the NHL side Vegas Golden Knights, also confirmed plans to add to his footballing portfolio by acquiring a stake in the Scottish Premiership side Hibernian, after gaining a licence to create an Auckland-based A-League club. Foley, who bought the Ligue 1 side Lorient last year, also wants a Belgian club. “That is my goal, to develop these other teams in support of Bournemouth and for Bournemouth to support those other teams,” he said.
Bournemouth are hopeful Lloyd Kelly, who is out of contract at the end of the season, will follow Solanke and Philip Billing in committing his long-term future to the club. Solanke and Billing signed new deals until 2027 this year.
