Second division football club FC Schalke 04 invites its members to the annual general meeting at the Veltins Arena this Saturday, 17 June 2023. Forecasting will be there for you via live ticker.

4.24 p.m.: The AGM ends with the club song. That’s it from here. Have a good evening!

16.20 hrs: Now Axel Hefer says goodbye to the members and ends the meeting, inviting the staff to a free beer.

16.17 hrs: Finally, Britta Assauer comes on stage and asks about the possibility of a farewell drink for her Rudi on his 80th birthday next year.

4.16 p.m.: He gives Rühl-Hamers his contact details and calls other S04 fans to follow him.

16.12 hrs: The best comes at the end. As in the previous year, Norbert doesn’t miss the opportunity to give the last word with a short song. It’s a song about Schalke and the fans. Pretty weird. Fortunately also quite short. And then he makes the club an offer: he wants to lend S04 50,000 euros for 15 months without interest.

16.10 hrs: Schröder has just given a fan his business card because he wanted to talk to him about the distribution of away tickets.

16.07: The new ticket system is not in order, said the next fan. “The criticism is justified. Those were initial illnesses. We have to get better at that,” said Schröder.

16.04 hrs: The next speaker suggested holding the next AGM as a hybrid meeting so that more members could attend. Hefer said he could make a motion on this for the next AGM.

4.02 p.m.: A fan asked about the friendly match between S04 and Liverpool FC. This had come about due to contacts between Jürgen Klopp and David Wagner, but was no longer relevant. They would prefer to play there if they had qualified for it in sporting terms.

15.56: Another member suggested the inclusion of Ralf Fährmann in the Schalker honorary dressing room. “We’ll be very happy to take that for the next time,” said Peter Knäbel.

15.53: Another member asked if the “re-live” could be reintroduced. “We stopped the re-live because the demand was too low,” explained Bernd Schröder.

3.46 p.m.: The first member suggested a review of the information dissemination of the practice of free parking. Not everyone knew that parking was free if they parked two hours before the match. Many would therefore pay even though they did not have to.

3.46 p.m. The next item is Item 10: Miscellaneous. Members can now express their opinions on various matters.

3.44 p.m. Five members of the Honorary Council were elected in a block. They are Lars Althoff, Ernst-Martin Barth, Ilona Caroli, Andreas Müglich and Jan Henke.

15.40: Dominic Karamarko (1502) and Torsten Wieland (1397) were elected. Both accept the election. Thorsten Altfeld thus retires after many years of membership.

15.31 hrs: Now the members of the election committee are elected. Thorsten Altfeld, Thorsten Wieland and Dominic Karamarko are standing for election.

15.15: Axel Hefer was also re-elected. He received 2217 votes, which corresponds to 93.35%. 158 fans voted against. It can be assumed that he will be re-elected as chairperson in the constituent meeting afterwards.

3.22 p.m.: The first vote was on Brauner. He received 2,092 votes, 86% of all votes cast. 338 members voted against. Brauner accepts the election and will be a member of the committee for another three years.

15.07: Brauner and Hefer now explain their motivation for another term. “Rarely or never have we been more away from the chaos club than today,” said Hefer.

14.55 hrs: Now we move on to TOP7: Election of candidates for the Supervisory Board. Axel Hefer and Holger Brauner are on the ballot.

14.55 hrs: With a huge majority the motion of the poll was rejected. There will be no further questioning of the members on the subject of disincorporation.

14.54 hrs: Günther Reipen refers to the Schalker statutes, which state that the club remains an association. And the survey that has just been carried out

14.51: There are two speakers on this motion: The first speaker opposes the motion. He said he wanted to keep the registered association and that the elected representatives should be left alone. “We stand for the registered association,” he ends. And earns thunderous applause.

14.46 hrs: Now the nephew of the recently deceased long-time roundabout distributor Werner Wietzorrek speaks. He moves that all members be asked about the legal form of the registered association. The result is shrill whistles and very little applause. After all, there had just been a corresponding survey.

2.42 p.m.: The proposal for a life membership at a price of 1,904 euros and a family membership was also accepted. Both motions were also adopted. 14.38 hrs: The next motions “Commitment to protection against violence” and “Commitment to sustainability” will be included in the association’s statutes.

14.32 hrs: Among other things, the Executive Committee proposed that the financial year should run from 1 July to 30 June instead of the current year. One fan said he didn’t like that because he would have to come to the AGM in winter and would freeze. But the motion was passed by a show of hands and a clear 2/3 majority.

2.28 p.m.: Now comes TOP6: Amendments to the Statutes

2.28 p.m.: With a few dissenters, the actions of the Supervisory Board were approved.

2.26 p.m.: The discharge of the Board of Directors is unanimously granted.

2.23 p.m.: Now comes TOP 5: Discharge of the Executive Board.

2.23 p.m.: Another fan would like to see the VRR ticket for home games extended to cover the whole of NRW. Hefer said that this would be looked into.

14.19 hrs: Knäbel is using the situation far too positively. “Where is the scaffolding?” he asks . “The scaffolding has gone or is still going”. He warns against selling Marvin Pieringer, who is needed.

2.12 p.m.: He criticised the fact that the new jersey deal, which has now failed to materialise, was amateurishly engineered: “It’s a scandal,” he said. Of course, he exceeded his speaking time of two minutes. “To explain Schalke in two minutes, that’s not possible,” he said. “Make it three or four next time.”

14.04: Peter Wendt criticises Schalke for being “dead”. He said he was not a nest-robber, but that players who had Bundesliga level like Bülter and Zalazar were now leaving the club would now jeopardise the future. The first whistles resound through the arena.

14.04 hrs: Now it’s time for TOP 4: Debate on the reports.

2.03 p.m.: We have gained 10,000 members in the last twelve months and now want to go up again with a squad that is also competitive in the Bundesliga.

13.59 hrs: There were two goals. To prevent relegation. That was missed. Progress has been made in increasing the value of the squad. That’s where they want to continue. To do that, they want to significantly increase the playing time of their own young players, which was 20 per cent last year.

13.57: Now the chairman of the supervisory board Axel Hefer speaks. “We were relegated even though we provided a sufficient budget. But we made mistakes,” Hefer also says.

13.52: Now Knäbel brings Tayln Bulut and Assan Queadrogo on stage and honours them for winning the U17 European Championship. “I had nothing in my head, I wasn’t nervous and I was sure I’d put it in,” Bulut said about his penalty goal in the final.

13.46 hrs: Now Knäbel honours the Schalk girls’ teams who have integrated best into the club.

13.46 hrs: Earlier he praised S04 coach Thomas Reis, who fits in with the club.

13.41 hrs: The development of the personnel value in the past twelve months is an indication that the club has been on the right track, which is why they can and want to be successful with the new coach. Knäbel: “We know what we have to do to earn our way back into the 1. Liga.”

13.41: He said the team was going into the season with a clear goal: “Immediate re-promotion.” But for that, they need players who identify 100 per cent with S04. If that is not the case, you have to talk. But that would be expensive for the clubs that wanted S04 players.

1.35 p.m.: They had always planned for two tracks, but had hoped never to have to implement this plan. But already one day after the relegation, they switched back to the forward gear.

1.31 p.m.: It was not due to the budget. They had 40 million euros at their disposal. That is more than a normal promoted team has. But mistakes were made that could only be corrected with the signing of Thomas Reis and a few players. “The eighth place in the table and relegation still don’t really want to go together.”

13.26: Now it’s Peter Knäbel’s turn: “We missed our big goal of the season, to stay in the league. We have to take responsibility for that as sporting directors.”

1.26 p.m.: Rühl-Hamers: “It was only when Peter and I started here that meeting financial targets no longer became an option, but a duty.”

1.22 p.m.: People have regained the ability to act in recent years. However, it will take longer to reduce liabilities in the second league. But we have created a foundation that makes a financial turnaround possible.

13.15 hrs: Chief Financial Officer Rühl-Hamers is now talking: she forecasts a profit in the mid-single-digit millions for the 2023 financial year. For the first time since 2018. It applies to both leagues.

13.15: Schröder ends his contribution with a promise: “We are returning to the Bundesliga. Together. Because Schalke is first-class. For life.”

13.10: Schröder earned applause because S04 had voted against the entry of a DFL investor because he disagreed with the distribution key. However, he was not fundamentally against the entry of a sponsor. But one has to take into account who brings the attractiveness and the football experience to football. “This means that we need a new distribution key for the distribution of television money. He will fight for this.

12.59 p.m.: At the moment, there is no signed jersey sponsor, but Schröder says they are working on presenting one quickly and are in talks.

12.44 p.m.: Schröder is now talking about the member survey. “More than two thirds support the course we have taken,” said Schröder. And by that he meant that the legal form of the association should not be questioned.

12.44 p.m.: Now S04 sporting director Bernd Schröder is talking: “In the long term, we want to be in a position again to compete for the top six in the Bundesliga,” Schröder said. He added that mistakes had been made which had led to relegation despite 8th place in the second half of the season, but that this would not change the long-term goals.

12.44 p.m.: Standing ovations and shouts of “Höwedes, Höwedes” resound through the arena.

12.39 p.m.: Benedikt Höwedes has been unanimously elected as FC Schalke 04’s honorary captain by the 3,484 voting members present at the general meeting of FC Schalke 04 at the Veltins Arena, out of a total of almost 169,000 Schalke members. Höwedes was captain of the second-division club from 2011 to 2017 and won the DFB Cup with the club in 2011. “I am sure that your future and Schalke’s future will be connected in one way or another,” orated Schalke’s sports director Peter Knäbel. “Let’s continue to support the club so that we can get back into the 1. Liga as quickly as possible and get the club where it belongs,” said Höwedes.

This was a tribute to his sporting and epochal importance for S04. After Thomas Student, Ernst Kuzorra, Hermann Epenhoff, Berni Klodt, Manfred Kreuz, Stan Libuda, Klaus Fischer, Olaf Thon and Tomasz Waldoch, Höwedes is the tenth player in S04’s club history to receive this honour.

12.36 p.m.: Benedikt Höwedes has been unanimously elected as S04’s honorary captain.

12.36pm: Now Benedikt Höwedes is up for election. “I am sure that your future and Schalke’s future will be linked in one way or another,” orated Schalke’s sports director Peter Knäbel. S04 fan Günther Reipen proposed the recording.

12.31 p.m.: It has just been announced that 3528 members are present today, 3484 of whom are entitled to vote.

12.29 p.m.: Ivica Horvath was also unanimously admitted to the VIP booth after a speech by the Kremers twins. his daughter accepted the honour.

12.12: But first the election of Ernst Poertgen and ex-coach Ivica Horvath to the S04 Honours Cabin is on the agenda.

12.05 pm: Huge cheers in the arena! The election of Benedikt Höwedes as S04’s honorary captain is about to take place. Bene” was captain from 2011 to 2017. He has sporting and epochal significance for S04, winning the DFB Cup with the Knappen in 2011.

12.05pm: 1353 S04 members were honoured for their 25-year membership. [url]https?://www.Forecasting.de/fussball/2bundesliga/a594067—schalke-25-29-jahre-s04-mitglied-konstante-leben.html[/url] Ten Schalke players have even been members for 50 years. They were personally visited by S04 legend Olaf Thon.

12.00: In the past few minutes, the deceased club members were remembered, among them. “Asi” Erich Wehner, Bernd Kampmann, Stephan Schröter, Hassan Talib Haji, Matthias Libuda and Uschi Dargott.

11.51 a.m.: Incidentally, 2,700 members are fewer present than in previous years.

11.47 a.m.: In another test vote, the members chose “Sporting Success” and “Financial Resilience” as the things with the highest priority for the club.

11.41 a.m.: The result of the test vote is in: 704 members voted “yes” and 1964 voted “no”. So there seem to be just under 2,700 voting members in the arena.

11.39 a.m.: The U17 European champions Assan Queadraogo and Taylan Bulut are also among the guests of honour.

11.36 a.m.: Trial voting is now underway. “For a sustainable stadium experience, I would be willing to spend more money on tickets and food”

11.35 a.m.: Hefer explains the voting rules

11.30 a.m.: Axel Hefer has opened the AGM.

11.04 a.m.: Official start is now 11.34 a.m.!

10.45 a.m.: The start of the AGM is postponed by at least half an hour due to the partial closure of the A2 and the resulting traffic jam.

10.30 a.m.: Welcome from Gelsenkirchen. We have found our seat and are eagerly awaiting the 2023 annual general meeting of FC Schalke 04. There are some exciting topics to discuss. It’s supposed to start here at 11.04 a.m.