Celtic strike partnership deal with Belgium's KV Oostende

Celtic have established a partnership agreement with Belgium's KV Oostende.

The deal will see up to three of Celtic's reserve and youth team players loaned out to the Belgian second division side each season.
Diarmuid O'Carroll, the 20-year-old Republic of Ireland youth international forward who spent part of last season on loan at Ross County, has joined Oostende for the rest of this season. O'Carroll will be joined by two of his Celtic reserve team-mates in due course.



Sounds like the deal Manchester United have going with Royal Antwerp.Hopefully any players that go out there come back better players after experiencing a different style of football.I'd imagine we'll have first option on any players that come out of their youth system.
All in all it sounds like a good project

 

playing in belgian second division? probably the same level as the reserves!

 

If it's good enough for Utd it must be good enough for us.They'll be playing competitve games with a European style of football.

 

Excellent news! I was just thinking about this yesterday after reading about those players from Trinidad and Tobago, if we don't get work permits granted for them we can still sign them and send them on loan to Oostende where the laws for Work Permit's are more leniant and after 3 years they'll be granted EU-citizenship and can come play for us, this'll open up a new market for us!

 

There is no Belgian premiership so thats their 2nd top league although there are 16 teams in the top league. Any Belgians at TC??

 

Its pretty good, means we can do waht Man Utd done with Dong Fanzhou if he doesnt get a work permit. Same with Arsenal and Carlos Vela, you might find us getting more foreign younsters now.

 

Yes, better than going out on loan to SFL1...I am sure this Belgium team will prove better experience for the young lads..certainly better than going to teams like Ross County and Clyde. At least this way they can learn a different style of football.

 

Here's a more in-depth report:


Scottish champions establish partnership with Belgian club
STEPHEN HALLIDAY

CELTIC have agreed to form a partnership with KV Oostende which will see up to three of the Scottish champions' reserve and youth team players loaned out to the Belgian second division side each season.

The agreement is similar to the one which has been in place for several years between Manchester United and Royal Antwerp and, more recently, between Blackburn Rovers and Cercle Bruges.

John Park, the former Hibs youth coach who is now Celtic's football development manager, brokered the new arrangement with Oostende who have already secured their first loan signing from the Parkhead club. Diarmuid O'Carroll, the 20-year-old Republic of Ireland youth international forward who spent part of last season on loan at Ross County, has joined Oostende for the rest of this season.

O'Carroll will be joined by two of his Celtic reserve team-mates in due course. In addition to giving some of their players regular first team experience at a reasonable level of football, Celtic will also share scouting resources with Oostende.

That type of agreement was, until recently, in place between Arsenal and Beveren which saw players such as Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue sign and play first of all for the Belgian club before making successful moves to Arsene Wenger's first team. The Arsenal-Beveren partnership was subjected to a FIFA probe with the London club cleared of any breach of ownership regulations.

"This deal with Celtic will be a win-win situation for both clubs," said Oostende chairman Yves Lejaeghere. "Celtic received a similar proposal from a first division club in Belgium, but they rejected it as the club plays in a city they don't know. Ostend is well known in Scotland and the fact it has an airport and ferry port are extra advantages.

"Celtic want their youngsters to be in good hands when they go out on loan and also want it to be easy to follow their progress. We got in contact with John Park at Celtic and our proposal left him with no doubts. We will be able to take three young Celtic players every season with the guarantee that they play in the first team here every week. That will help them mature.

"We also reached an agreement that we will get a percentage of the transfer fee if Celtic go on to sell any of their players who have spent time with us. We will also be integrated into Celtic's scouting system. The Belgian football agents Gerd van Eetveld and Eric Tetart have good relationships with Celtic and it was they who broke the ice for us."

Among the Manchester United players who have benefitted from the Old Trafford club's long standing link with Royal Antwerp are Republic of Ireland international defender and John O'Shea and winger Lee Martin.

Oostende have spent most of their 103 year existence in the second tier of Belgian football but have reached the first division on several occasions, most recently in 2004 before being immediately relegated the following season

 

Is it true, that Ian Harte can join Celtic this season? He was quite a good player while at Leeds Utd.

 

Yeah,he can as he's a free agent.But your'e in the wrong thread mate.Go to the Transfer Rumours section.There's a thread on it there.

 

It is a very good link up it will allow our younger players to grow up quickly

 

About time we had something like this in place. Not only does it give our reserves a chance to get some first team football. It allows us the option, hopefully, of bringing through non-EU players.

It will also give the players the benefit of getting them out of Glasgow and experience living in a different culture. I think many youth players suffer from being big time charlies before they have actually done it on the park and get arrogant and lose sight of the fact that you aren't a great footballer just because you have a professional contract with Celtic. Some time away from being surrounded by people who tell them they must be amazing as they are Celtic players would be good for them i think.

 

Never a bad thing to have this. We should be having teams in Africa, Asia, North and south America as well.

The more continents we are on the better.

 

sounds like great news that means we can now get young players from south amercia loan them to that club for a few years !!

also it will be great for a youth players instead of going to the likes of ross county and other scottish lower teams they can go to a diffrent country experiance what its like to play diffrent styles of football and hopefully it proves to be a great coup for the whole of celtic !!

 

This will separate the Boys from the men . Who will sink and who will swim . Playing in a foreign country at a young age will make some of these young Celts stronger

 

Great news for all the reasons everyone else has said.

 

This should be good.. in a few years time these boys will know what to expect when playing in Europe for us...

 

Strange that they didn't go for the team in the first division though...

 

Should be interesting, does this mean season cards will earn loyalty points in Ostend pubs lol

 

Celtic and KV Oostende

I was on the KV website and unfortunately my flemish isn't that good anymore, so i wasn't able to understand much. I sent them a message asking them to translate it. I thought since we may be sending them some players it might be good for us to see how they are getting on. More on that if I get a reply.

But, as fans don't we have friendships with fans of other European clubs?Now that we have this link with Oostende, should we as supporters have links to their fans? Just a thought you know get their feelings on how well (or not) our Bhoys are getting on?