Amateur football club from Drenthe raises €550,000 from lottery; Ferrari among prizes
An amateur football club from Drenthe has raised 550,000 euros through a lottery. SV Borger held the lottery to raise money for a new clubhouse; the municipality was helping to cover the costs, but SV Borger also had to pay 300,000 euros of its own money.
The lottery, which included prizes like a second-hand Ferrari 430, was looking like it was going to end in a huge disappointment. The club had to sell 17,700 tickets with just a week to go, but national attention resulted in a late surge in sales.
“It’s really nothing but joy, happiness, and euphoria,” said the club’s first team manager, Arne Joling, to NOS. “I actually don’t have words for what happened here.”
The winners of the lottery will be notified on Monday, with the prizes to be handed out on Friday. The winner of the main prize can choose to take the Ferrari or 75,000 euros.
Joling had previously said that he would not do this type of lottery again, stating that the volunteers at the club have been working tirelessly on the event for six months, but he may have changed his mind at this point. “Maybe we’ll do it again sometime,” he said. “It’s wonderful when a group of volunteers sticks their necks out.”
SV Borger’s first team plays in the Vierde Klasse of Dutch football, which is the ninth tier of the Dutch football pyramid.
