Acun Ilicali says Hull City will target European football next if they win Premier League promotion
Hull City have a fight on in the next nine games to reach the Championship play-offs, then another to win promotion to the Premier League. But already chairman/owner Acun Ilicali is targeting European football if they get there.
And despite a brief and unsuccessful spell as owner of Shelbourne United last year, he remains committed to multi-club ownership with a Slovenian team his preference to add to the portfolio.
The charismatic Ilicali was speaking in a press conference before the Tigers’ friendly against the Caracao national team in Antalya, the showpiece of their five-day trip to the Turkish city.
Hull are three points outside the play-off places with a game in hand on Norwich City, whose eight-goal goal difference advantage is effectively worth another point.
Finish in the top six and they must then win a play-off competition which will feature at least one team who played in last season’s Premier League – Leeds United are hoping for automatic promotion but it is far from guaranteed – to secure promotion.
But the restless Turkish media mogul will not be happy with that.
“If we can get to the Premier League our aim is to represent England in European football,” said Ilicali.
“Targets change, there’s always new targets needed for us to be more motivated.
“In my whole life I was never satisfied with what I achieved, I was always focused on the next step.
“I want us to go step by step and make improvement and improvement.
“If our improvement leads us into the Premier League of course I will ask for a new improvement from our dear coach.”
Reaching the FA Cup final against an Arsenal team who had already qualified for Europe in 2014 saw Hull play in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League, but they have never played in the competition proper, of any of Uefa’s other continental tournaments.
They are constantly expanding, and with four teams added to next year’s Champions League and the possibility of a clean sweep of Premier League clubs winning that, the Europa and Conference Leagues, more English teams than ever are likely to get the chance of proving themselves against continental opposition in the coming seasons.
To help the chances, Ilicali is hoping to buy a potential “feeder club”.
He bought Irish club Shelbourne last June but passed it back to supporters before the year was out. Now he is looking for another club which will allow him to “park” players who do not meet the criteria for a visa to play in this country.
“We have some plans for the future but not only for Hull City, we want to create a football world around Hull City to catch new possibilities,” he explained.
“We wish to purchase another football club. We went to Greece and Slovenia and spoke to some clubs and the UEFA president helped us there.
“We couldn’t have success in Ireland and it seems like Slovenia will be the focal point right now.
“I believe in multi-club operations because it gives us the possibility to catch players who cannot play for Hull City (for visa reasons) so they can train with another club.”
