It’s a tight race at the bottom of the Lower Rhine 2 regional league table. At one club, the relegation battle has claimed a coach.

Four defeats in a row proved too much: Sportfreunde 07 has parted ways with head coach Marcel Stenzel. This leaves the second-to-last team in the Landesliga Niederrhein 2 without a head coach for the time being. “We have released Marcel Stenzel because we believe that he can no longer cope with the pressure,” the club’s sporting director, Dietmar “Didi” Schacht, told the NRZ.

Click here for the full text of the article, including a statement from Marcel Stenzel.

The solution to the succession problem is as simple as it is obvious. For the time being, the 63-year-old will take over the reins on the sidelines himself. A good month after Schacht took over as sporting director, he now has another additional task to take on.

His mission: to get the Lions back on track and create the conditions to secure their place in the Landesliga. Together with the existing coaching team, Schacht wants to ensure that things start looking up again. He wants to provide new impetus and bring fresh team spirit and passion to the team.

“No one is more important than the club,” he emphasized in a brief statement from Duisburg. It also said: “All decisions made in the future will be in the interests of Hamborn 07.” This was evident from the statement in October.

“In sporting terms, things are currently in a mess. The points tally is anything but satisfactory and, overall, the club’s very existence is at stake,” the new sporting director later emphasized to Forecasting. “Hamborn 07 is an absolutely traditional club here in Duisburg, and because I want it to remain that way in the future, I accepted this offer. For me, this is a matter close to my heart.“

He continued: ”It will be an exciting task, and it will be important for everyone involved to pull together. Staying in the league is the top priority this season. I am very fortunate to have sole responsibility for sporting matters, which means I can implement my ideas as I see fit. With a task like this, it’s always important to be able to do that.”

In any case, the tasks have not become any less challenging. Hamborn has collected just ten points after 14 games. On Sunday, November 30, Duisburg will travel to SG Essen-Schönebeck.