Although it was not as heated as expected, the general meeting of Rot-Weiss Essen produces hardly any winners. A commentary.

It was somehow a memorable general meeting of Rot-Weiss Essen. Much had been speculated in advance about what would happen. Also due to a poster before the kick-off of the AGM, which read: “Do not discharge the supervisory board.”

In the end, the conclusion remains: although the numbers are good and the professionals have won twice recently, almost everyone involved feels like a loser at the end of the day. Although the actions of the management and supervisory boards were approved for the 2023 financial year and the short fiscal year 2024 (January 1 to June 30, 2024), that’s where the good news ends.

Because…

… in the run-up to the event, many RWE members were getting worked up about the supervisory board or the current management board, which had been operating too invisibly, whether in the forums, social media or in the stadium through posters. At the general meeting, they missed the opportunity to ask critical questions. Almost everything was waved through, and questions hardly arose at all. So it can’t be that bad when an opportunity to ask questions is so negligently missed.

… Nevertheless, the members sent a signal and replaced two people on the election committee. Dieter Gruber and Klaus Grewer are out, Nicole Neugebauer and Stefan Lantermann are moving up. This means that the election committee cannot continue its work as planned, which also makes it and the supervisory board losers, because now more than ever they have to fear that in the coming year, before the election of the new supervisory board, candidates will also be rubber-stamped and nominated by the election committee who see a different path for RWE than the current supervisory board.

.. before the election to the election committee, the supervisory board had switched to attack mode. This Sunday, they were the only ones who extended the claws. And that twice in the form of supervisory board boss Lothar Oelert. First, he accused former board member Sascha Peljhan of trying to push through certain personnel matters by linking it to his sponsorship.

Then he announced that Peljhan had granted former boss Marcus Uhlig an advance on his salary of around 15,000 euros. This had since been repaid, but may not be compatible with the statutes, according to Oelert. So what apparently still needs to be clarified, which makes it even more questionable to go public with what is apparently not even a completed process.

If these allegations are true, they naturally also cast a shadow over the term of office of Uhlig and Peljhan – who were now among the losers of the day at the latest. Because at the end of the day, more was whispered about this topic than about the rest of the event.

But after these publications, everyone will understand that despite many denials, the relationship between the supervisory board and Peljhan / Uhlig could hardly have been worse. Again and again it was said – even at the beginning of 2024 – that they would work well together, but now this can be safely dismissed as a fairy tale.

And the members? They even swallowed these two reports almost without question, as if the drinks at the trade fair had been laced with sedatives. Not even the members who had indicated in advance of the AGM that they would show up on Sunday to ask critical questions in view of the 2025 supervisory board elections were present.

Perhaps they were simply satisfied with the figures presented at the beginning of the event, just like the rest of those present. Because they were actually okay. It is not a matter of course that a third division club can present a mini-plus. This can be traced back to the time of Uhlig and Peljhan, just for the record.

The outlook also seems promising if the figures presented by board member Alexander Rang for sponsoring, jersey sales and the hospitality area continue to develop in this way.

It can be said that there are still two winners. Marc-Nicolai Pfeifer and Rang presented a respectable balance sheet and an optimistic outlook. Financially, there have been worse phases at RWE, that’s for sure.

But behind the scenes it seems to have been worse than one could have imagined when such issues are not dealt with internally, as they were on Sunday, but made public at an AGM.

And if you dish it out, you have to be able to take it. It will be interesting to see if there are any reactions to Oelert’s publications. There will probably be no calm at RWE for the time being after this AGM.