The core business of sports for Khun Top and Jon Rudkin would and should be Leicester City. This part of their big puzzle is not working as well as we would have liked to see, but they have more success in other areas, looking at the process ongoing at OH Leuven.
This is in massive contrast to what is going on around at other parts of their sporting business at this point. Despite a troublesome season for the LCFC women team, they could still control the outcome of their own situation and save themselves from relegation with a play-off game to play.
In Belgium at the sister club OH Leuven things are on the up and in a strange contrast to what is going on at Leicester at the moment. The 2025–26 season has been a landmark, historic campaign for the Oud-Heverlee Leuven (OH Leuven) Women’s team, highlighted by a maiden UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) run and continued dominance in Belgium. OH Leuven made history as the first Belgian team to progress through qualifying and reach the knockout play-offs of the revamped UEFA Women’s Champions League, ultimately bowing out to Arsenal in February 2026. The team secured a thrilling 2-1 victory over FC Twente in October 2025, which featured a dramatic last-gasp winner, and earned crucial draws against heavyweights Paris FC (2-2) and PSG (0-0) during the league phase.
Seynhaeve’s Heroics: Goalkeeper Lowiese Seynhaeve was crucial, including a Player of the Match performance in a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Roma at Den Dreef.
By early May 2026, OH Leuven was dominating the Belgian Women’s Super League (LSL), sitting top of the table with a 20-2-1 record, well ahead of rivals RSC Anderlecht.
Where They Go From Here? (Post-2025–26 Season) Consolidating European Standing: Having proved they can compete with big European clubs, the immediate goal for 2026-27 is to secure another league title to return to the UWCL, aiming for the new, expanded 18-team league phase. Squad Development: Manager Arno Van Den Abbeel will likely look to retain key performers like Sára Pusztai (top scorer) and experienced players like Julie Biesmans to build on the physical and technical progress shown this season. Challenging the Elite: The 0-4 and 1-3 losses to Arsenal in the knockout playoffs showed the gap between the Belgian top tier and elite European sides. The next step is closing that gap through experience and potential tactical refinements, as noted by coach Arno Van Den Abbeel regarding the “difference between us and them”. The team ends the season as champions-elect in Belgium and with a reputation as a rapidly rising force in European football.
𝗫𝗜 📋OH Leuven #OHLWES pic.twitter.com/TNv6mhQAqI
— OH Leuven (@OHLeuven) April 21, 2026
Based on the 2025-26 season, the Oud-Heverlee Leuven (OHL) men’s team have experienced a turbulent, transitional year in the Jupiler Pro League, narrowly avoiding the relegation play-offs before navigating a challenging playoff period. Managerial Changes: The season saw significant upheaval, with David Hubert managing until October 13, 2025, followed briefly by Hans Somers, before Felice Mazzù took over on October 26, 2025.
Dramatic Wins: A key highlight was a dramatic 1-0 victory over Royal Antwerp FC at Den Dreef in March 2026, secured by a stoppage-time goal, which was crucial for avoiding the relegation zone. Top Performers: During the 2025-26 season, key contributors included strikers Sory Kaba and Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi, alongside defensive stability from goalkeeper Tobe Leysen.
For the 2026–27 season, the Belgian Pro League is undergoing a major overhaul, abandoning its long-standing playoff system to return to a traditional, straightforward league format. Here are the key changes for 2026–27:League Expansion: The top division (Pro League) will expand from 16 to 18 teams. Abolition of Playoffs: The complex playoff system (Champions Play-off, Europe Play-off) introduced in 2009 is scrapped. Traditional Format: The league will operate as a standard round-robin tournament. Each team plays 34 matches (home and away).Champion: The team finishing at the top of the table after 34 matches is crowned champion. Relegation: The bottom two teams (17th and 18th) will be automatically relegated to the Challenger Pro League. European Tickets: The top four teams (1–4) will secure European competition spots. Calendar Shifts: Due to the changes, the league will start slightly later—around 7 August 2026—and will feature a two-week winter break. Transition Year (2025-26): To prepare for this, the 2025-26 season will have no direct relegation, with the 16th-placed team facing a playoff against a promotion contender to decide the final 2026-27 top-flight spot. This reform aims to reduce fixture congestion, providing a more balanced, traditional competition structure, similar to most other European leagues.
The picture of the Leicester ownership is a complexed affair. The problems we have seen in structure and balance and how they react on failure, is similar at OH Leuven. The rotation of first team football managers looks to be the rule rather than the exception when it comes to result driven activity.
You see the similar pattern in all areas. If you can’t deliver results, you are gone, before you have eaten your breakfast. No mercy what so ever. The ownership continues to work on their philosophy and duties.
OH Leuven has been in the top flight of Belgian football (Belgian Pro League/First Division A) for six consecutive seasons, starting from the 2020–21 season through to the current 2025–26 season.
So surely Jon Rudkin and Top has a strong foundation here. Strange to see the outcome at Leicester at this time, not managing to bring success to that part of the conglomeration.
We do have to understand that analysing things in a much broader picture, could lead to another answer or a diffierent explanation. Let’s hope we are wrong on a number of criterias and that we in the close future will see the change we are all looking for. At this point we do understand that having any hope in the current owners and leadership at Leicester looks difficult, with the outcome we have seen for the mens first team this season.
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