Angel Kostoski
It has been almost two years since the club previously known as Akademija Pandev was acquired by Brera Holdings PLC in May 2023. The Italian multi-club ownership group came to the Macedonian football market with the hopes of building what would be their European competitor, with the hopes of immediately playing in Europe’s continental competitions. Instead AP Brera have found themselves in a relegation battle which could see them fall back into the 2.MFL for the first time since the club won promotion in 2017.
For most of the Macedonian football faithful, this comes as a huge shock. For many years AP Brera was a consistent mid-table side, with Goran Pandev’s funding keeping the club running smoothly. But digging a bit deeper into the inner workings of Brera reveals a club and an MCO that have stretched themselves too thin to compete properly in Macedonia’s top flight. So, with that in mind, here is a breakdown of what truly is going wrong at AP Brera.
Who Were Akademija Pandev?
We should begin with a brief overview of the club in question. Akademija Pandev was founded in 2010 by legendary Macedonian striker Goran Pandev to serve as a youth academy in his hometown of Strumica. The plan was for this team to compete with Belasica’s youth teams on a national level, where Pandev himself made his first steps. However as the demands of clubs in the youth leagues increased, the club could no longer just comprise of youth teams.
Eventually they would form their own senior team in 2014, starting in the OFL Strumica, the lowest tier of Macedonian football. The club would make quick work of the lower leagues, becoming one of only a few teams to complete the rise from the municipal leagues to the 1.MFL in consecutive seasons. Their rise up the leagues was also fueled by the presence of many players who came through their youth ranks like Ljupche Doriev, Jani Atanasov, Mario Krstovski, Vane Jovanov and more.
The club would finish 6th in their first campaign in the top flight, only to out do that by finishing 3rd in the next season and winning the Macedonian Cup. The Cup title was their first and to this day only piece of major silverware, but it sparked hope of more success in the future. However after the 2018/19 season, the club would find itself struggling to get out of the mid-table spots with the exception of the 2021/22 season when Martin Mirchevski led the line as the “Pandevci” finished all the way in 2nd.
It was clear that for Akademija Pandev to make progress up the table, it would need a push. So when rumors of a merger between them and Belasica became a topic of discussion, people were excited and wanted to see it happen. Of course, Akademija Pandev would come out and deny the rumors as a merger would benefit Belasica rather than both teams, but the whispers of something going on in Strumica didn’t stop there. Eventually after months of speculation, Akademija Pandev and Brera Calcio would announce plans to cooperate and soon see them become part of a new MCO.
The Arrival of Brera
Brera Calcio is a football club founded by journalist Alessandro Aleotti in 2000 in the Milanese district of the same name. The club began life in Serie D but would quickly get relegated and spend most of its seasons within the non-professional lower leagues of Italian football. Whilst the club was never able to find much success on the pitch, its off the pitch impact left the club with the moniker “the third club of Milan”. Among some of its many projects included junior teams for non-EU immigrants living in Milan, a football team for inmates to promote the social impact of societal development and many more.
Its most audacious move was the founding of the FENIX Trophy, which is an annual tournament comprising of many non-professional teams within Europe. Amongst some of its participants have been FC United of Manchester, Lewes and Ensfield Town from England, Prague Raptors from Czechia, FK Miljakovac from Serbia, Fans United from Montenegro and many more. Not contempt with all that it had done to that point, the club looked to expand its own brand by buying or founding new clubs with the Brera name in new parts of the world.
For that purpose they founded their own holding company, fittingly named Brera Holdings PLC, which would be listed on the NASDAQ in January 2023. The PLC would begin with a price of $5 per share, giving it a market cap of about $7.5 million. Amongst the early investors into Brera Holdings would be businessman Daniel McClory, Chris Gardner and of course Goran Pandev. This was then followed up with the clubs first official entrant into their new MCO, that being the newly formed Brera Tchumene in the Segunda Divisão of Mozambique.
Soon after followed the official acquisition of Akademija Pandev and afterwards the clubs rebranding to FK Akademija Pandev Brera Strumica – or AP Brera for short. Brera’s expansion would continue further into Mongolia with Brera Ilch in early 2024, followed with their first steps into women’s football through the part acquisition of ZhFK Tiverija, rebranding the club to ZhFK Tiverija Brera from the 2024/25 season.
The High Expectations in Strumica
Almost immediately with the announcement of the deal between Brera and Pandev, most of the Macedonian footballing world had acknowledged the real possibility of AP Brera being a true force in the league. Having the backing of a NASDAQ listed MCO was new to Macedonian football and it was easy to see that as a sort of “free money glitch”. However even in spite of that the club came out with a promise to focus on the development of youth players, something that the club had already been doing under its previous name.
With Goran Pandev remaining as the club’s president, the first change would come with the introduction of Giovanni Valenti as the club’s first manager under the new ownership. The Italian coach had experience doing work with many big Italian clubs’ youth ranks, whilst also being the assistant to Alberto Bollini in his first stint with Italy’s under 19s. This meant that AP Brera would be Valenti’s first encounter with management in the senior game.
Along with the addition of Valenti, a new general manager was also brought along in the form of Jovan Simić. Simić was an example of Brera using their connections in the FENIX Trophy to bring in someone with credible experience in football. Before joining AP Brera, he was the marketing director at FK Voždovac and then founded FK Miljakovac with whom he then participated in FENIX.
The club’s new look would begin brilliantly, with AP Brera finding themselves top of the table after four wins in a row. But as the honeymoon period came to an end, so did AP Brera’s ability to win games. After their great start, Valenti’s side would only win once more and draw or lose the other 12 fixtures. This sudden slump in form was enough to give the Italian the sack just 5 months in.
His replacement would be the Serbian manager Bojan Krulj. Krulj came to AP Brera through his connections with Simić and his rather fruitful times in the Serbian and Bosnian leagues with raising struggling teams up the table. Sure enough, with the support to bring in his own players from ex-Yugo nations, Krulj was able to stabilize the ship in Strumica, with his team going unbeaten at home during the second half of the season.
The Positives Hidden in the Negatives
AP Brera would finish the season in 7th, a stark contrast to the high expectations and great early start that preceded it. However not all things were so doom and gloom in Strumica. For one the club’s form had turned a leaf with Krulj’s arrival and over in the youth ranks, the club was finally able to secure the U19s Super League title for the first time. With that the club had secured itself a berth in the UEFA Youth League qualifiers for the coming season and a chance to give its rising talents crucial continental experience.
On top of that success, AP Brera was able to give many of its most promising stars a chance in the first team, most notably Marko Gjorgievski and Martin Alchevski. Gjorgievski has from a very young age been touted as the next big thing to come out of Strumica and had finally properly broken into the first team. Alongside him, Alchevski too was finally given a full season to be the club’s number one option in goal and proving to be one of the league’s best shot stoppers at such a young age.
It was around this time AP Brera attempted to modernize the way it communicated with clubs from abroad with regards to selling their players. This is where TransferRoom came in, with the club being the first Macedonian side to participate in one of its summits. These attempts at outreach saw them enter the transfer windows with many offers for their players.
Bojan Dimoski was the first to leave for a reported sum of €75,000 to Akron Togliatti in Russia’s second tier. Then came the departures of Vane Krstevski and Kristijan Velinovski for a combined total of €200,000 to Shkëndija and Sumgayit respectively. And then in the summer of 2024 things really kicked into gear. Dimitar Trajkov was sold for €300,000 to Ukrainian side Polissya, Martin Alchevski went for around €100,000 to Israeli side Hapoel Jerusalem and Léo Antônio left for €50,000 to Serbian side Spartak. Among these deals were also many others with undisclosed sums.
In just three transfer windows the club had generated more than €700,000 in sales, proving to itself that the club is capable of using its own transfer policy and youth academy to generate profit. With many of the players in the under 19s squad going on loan to clubs in the 2.MFL to gain experience and to prove themselves capable of stepping up, all signs still pointed upwards for the “Neroverdi”.
Trouble Begins to Brew for Brera
One of the first decisions of the 2024/25 season reassigning Jovan Simić to the role of technical director whilst giving the role of general manager to Vancho Stojanov. Stojanov is with his accolades actually coming in middle-distance running who would represent Macedonia in two separate Olympics. After he retired from running he would transition into a fitness coach whilst also taking up general manager roles in Horizont Turnovo and Belasica.
However shortly after Simić would depart AP Brera with both parties citing private and family as the cause for the decision. Though that on its own is fairly understandable with the travel it can take for someone to go from Strumica to Belgrade, the way things were timed seems rather odd with hindsight in mind.
With some reinforcements coming in the summer, the club got off to a slow start after having to face many tough opponents in their first few fixtures. Shockingly though, it was three losses in a row to Sileks, Shkëndija and Struga Trim-Lum that would get Bojan Krulj sacked just four games into the new season. Although they had failed to score in either of the three games, all three clubs were amongst the title contenders and the sacking raised further eyebrows.
The club’s solution came with the announcement that Gorazd Mihailov would take over as the manager in place of the Serbian. Mihailov is regarded as one of the Macedonian league’s better managers. He’d managed to build his name up through successful stints at Borec and Sileks before taking the daunting job at Vardar where he stayed up until winning the Eternal derby against Pelister. His sudden departure from the “Crveno-crni” did mean that there was a good manager available for anyone who wanted someone known for building relatively strong sides, so AP Brera decided to swoop in.
Mihailov did manage to get the team going when facing off against any of the teams in and around them, however much like his predecessor he struggled to get decent results against any of the major title contenders. Although the club had also reached the quarter-finals of the Cup under his leadership, a 2-0 loss to relegation battling Tikvesh in the final matchday of the half-season did mark a sour note to what was already a hectic season.
Things Go from Bad to Worse
As the clubs in the 1.MFL were getting ready to start preparations for the new half season, news broke that Mihailov had left AP Brera. This came after many rumors surfaced that AP Brera was failing to pay its players, leading to many doubts over the sustainability of the club.
In Mihailov’s stead came Toni Atanasov, who served as one of his assistants during his time in Strumica. Atanasov was among the coaching staff that brought AP Brera their first U19s Super League title in 2024, however his managerial experience is sparce with only one stint as caretaker before the club was renamed. His first moves were to bring back many of the players who went out on loan to 2.MFL sides in the hopes of bolstering the depth.
Then came time for the transfer window business. They signed Revaldo Mitchell and Shadiq Kagimu from Rabotnichki, brought in Hristijan Jankulovski, Zoran Ivanovski and Mihail Milevski alongside many other foreign players in free agency. Meanwhile their departures caused more strain. Filip Kupanov had been let go on loan to Tikvesh, leaving the team with only its youth players as options in goal. Rogers Mato was sold to Vardar in order to generate some cash for the club. Djordje Ivković, Dimitar Todorovski and Daniel Milovanovikj also departed, leaving them much weaker after the window had closed.
To make matters worse, their start under Atanasov was catastrophic. Save only for a win in the quarter finals on penalties against Arsimi, his reign as manager did not see any other win and six defeats in his nine games in charge. As was to be expected, he was quickly sacked and replaced with Panche Stojanov. Much like his predecessor he too came from Atanasov’s backroom staff, however Stojanov had the benefit of previous managerial experience as he had guided Akademija Pandev in their early years.
As of writing, Stojanov has only managed four games. A loss and a draw to Vardar in the two legs of the cup semi-final, a win over Pelister away from home and loss to Tikvesh.
Searching For Answers from the Top
Whilst there are plenty of issues that can possibly be put down to bad management on the side of AP Brera, there are many more that have to be raised at Brera as a whole. How is a NASDAQ traded company in a position where it cannot pay the wages of a 1.MFL club? What responsibility have they taken for the failures on the ground in Strumica? Is AP Brera even a priority anymore?
Over the two years since the takeover there had been many changes that occurred within the holding company. In February 2024 an advisory board consisting of former USSF president Alan Rothenberg, former Italian international Giuseppe Rossi and businessmen Paul Tosetti and Marshall Geller was created to assist the club in decision making.
On top of that, early investor Daniel McClory had increased his stake in the company to 54,5% the following month, making him the new majority shareholder. It is with that momentum that the company moved to expand its MCO and launch a bid to take majority control of Serie B side Juve Stabia. Brera would do so by buying up shares over the course of several months, and by April 2025 they achieved just that alongside approval from the FIGC.
Juve Stabia’s recent success in Serie B has seen the climb all the way up to the promotion playoff spots, giving Brera confirmation that their investment has been successful so far. However that investment has also sort of come at the cost of its other teams. Brera Tchumene barely survived its first year in the Moçambola after achieving promotion in its first year. Brera Ilch has struggled to move up the Mongolian Premier League table after finishing 8th in its first season and finding itself in the same spot now. The only other relatively successful team Brera have is Tiverija Brera in the 1.ZhMFL, however Tiverija were already one of the top teams in Macedonian women’s football before their acquisition and most of the other teams are completely amateur.
Brera Holdings currently trades for $0.69 per share for a market cap of $8.5 million, meaning that the company has grown by $1 million in two years whilst the amount of shares available has quadrupled since the company started publicly trading. If anything, Brera was too quick to expand their network rather than set up any club of theirs individually for success, resulting in them having many teams that are not competitive enough to achieve their own ambitions. Now that they have a club where they can focus their resources into, the rest of the clubs in their network could end up suffering the consequences.
What Would Relegation Mean for AP Brera
Relegation is a serious threat that AP Brera face this season with only five games left in the season. Their current rivals for relegation are last season’s cup winners Tikvesh and Gorazd Mihailov’s new home at Besa. Voska Sport withdrew from the 1.MFL after their were docked 9 points for leaving the pitch against Vardar, leaving one automatic relegation spot.
Both Besa and AP Brera sit at 24 points, with the Dobri Dol based side only below them due to goal difference. Tikvesh meanwhile have been more resurgent and have a two point cushion between them and the relegation playoff spot. Of all of the relegation battling sides it is AP Brera that stand to lose the most in the event of relegation as their survival will also decide their ability to profit from Martin Gjorgievski.
Gjorgievski has been without a doubt the spark in the AP Brera squad since taking the captaincy at the beginning of this season, being the clubs second top goal scorer and most impactful player in many of their matches. It feels inevitable that he will be leaving Strumica for brighter pastures, however the sum they will be getting for him will depend on what league they play in. In the worst case scenario that AP Brera goes down, they’d be lucky to be asking for €50,000 when realistically he should go for upwards of €300,000.
Things do not look great for AP Brera. Their inability to improve on Akademija Pandev’s performances, their mismanagement on the club’s side, the overexpansion on the MCO’s side and the possibility of losing a generational talent for pennies paints a very bleak picture. But for their own sakes and for the sake of a team that has left its mark in Macedonian football, most will hope their fortunes turn around just in the nick of time.
