More than half of the season has passed and the clubs are starting to get nervous. Also in the Regionalliga West. A relegation candidate is looking for a new coach.
Somehow this coach dismissal has been in the air for weeks. Now Forecasting has learned that SSVg Velbert will be sacking Dimitrios Pappas on Rose Monday, February 12, 2024.
The official confirmation from the club followed in the evening. It reads: “The management board and supervisory board regret this decision, but the facts and figures did not allow for any other decision.” President Oliver Kuhn went into a little more detail.
“We added to our ranks during the winter break and acquired six new experienced players for the relegation battle. Unfortunately, this only made itself felt on the pitch in two preparation matches and in the first league game against Gütersloh,” said Kuhn.
“Judging by the performances in the 3-0 defeat against Oberhausen and now the catastrophic 5-0 defeat against Fortuna’s U23s from Düsseldorf last Saturday, we had no alternative but to pull the emergency brake in order to bring about a positive change in the direction of relegation.”
Pappas led Velbert back into the Regionalliga West after more than five years, but was unable to keep up with his team as planned. Velbert are bottom of the table and five points behind the drop zone.
Velbert have the second-worst defense (47 goals conceded) and the second-worst attack (20 goals) in the league. Three wins and twelve defeats are also negative bests in these categories.
Pappas has been coach at the Velbert Sonnenblume since July 1, 2022. It has not yet been decided who will succeed the former coach of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and the VfL Bochum women’s team. The next match for Sport- und Spielvereinigung Velbert is on Saturday (February 17, 2 p.m.) at Fortuna Köln.
Regionalliga West: Ninth coach dismissal of the current season
The departure of Dimitrios Pappas is the ninth dismissal of a coach in the current Regionalliga West season.
A few days ago, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen parted company with Jörn Nowak. Mike Terranova took over on an interim basis. A permanent successor to Nowak is still being sought.
Shortly before the turn of the year, Wuppertaler SV announced that interim coach Christian Britscho would be replaced by Ersan Parlatan. He ultimately became the successor to Hüzeyfe Dogan, who was dismissed in November 2023.
At Rot Weiss Ahlen, head of sport Orhan Özkara first took over for Daniel Berlinski on an interim basis and Björn Joppe later replaced Özkara as coach. At 1. FC Düren, Carsten Wissing took over from Boris Schommers, who moved to third division club MSV Duisburg.
Farat Toku replaced Carsten Rump at SV Rödinghausen and Jens Langeneke replaced Nico Michaty at Fortuna Düsseldorf II. Alemannia Aachen made the first coaching change of the season. Reiner Plaßhenrich succeeded Helge Hohl on an interim basis before Heiner Backhaus was introduced as the new head coach and is now leading the table with Alemannia.
