Tough times for Rot-Weiß Oberhausen. The active fan scene has taken a stand. There will be no support until there is a change of coach.
It’s getting uncomfortable in Oberhausen. At a meeting on Monday, the future of coach Jörn Nowak will be discussed. For the fans, the outcome is clear, as they announced in an open letter over the weekend.
The clear message: if RWO coach Jörn Nowak does not resign, there will be no more support for the team. There was already no support from the active fan scene against SV Lippstadt (1:1).
The supporters of the Kleeblätter explained their decision in 12,000 characters. They said that they were against Nowak’s appointment from the outset, but after a meeting they promised their support, as written. The fans made it clear that they would understand Nowak’s appointment as an “all-in decision” by the club.
The conclusion at the time: “After a very open discussion, we accepted the club’s decision and promised our full support – both on and off the pitch. We didn’t even break this promise until yesterday’s match day during the season: On the contrary. With a barbecue evening planned especially for the first team, including the staff, personal exchanges with individual players and visual and acoustic support even in difficult phases (the matches in the Niederrhein Cup are worth mentioning here), we wanted to reinforce the statements made before the season.”
But the sporting performance and an incident after the 0-0 draw at Gladbach II probably tipped the barrel over.
The fans emphasize: “Last Saturday, on the other hand, we did not want to enter into a discourse with the team for a good reason, in order to make another statement on our part. The fact that Jörn Nowak followed us almost to the exit at the fence and thus clearly did not respect our decision once again testifies to a weak character. After confused shouting, the sentence “That’s the last straw and you’re the last straw” from Mr. Nowak and a short confusion on the part of everyone involved, we went into confrontation for a short time. However, we quickly realized that this seemed to make little sense and went home.”
Discussions and debates followed, at the end of which it was decided that there would be no organized support against Lippstadt. And this silent protest will continue. Until Jörn Nowak is no longer the coach in Oberhausen…
The full letter in its entirety
Dear red-and-white supporters,
The past few days and weeks have been exciting for the active fan scene, the RWO fan council, the team and ultimately for the entire Rot-Weiß Oberhausen club. Under different circumstances, this exciting time would have been dominated solely by the so-called “cloverleaf bond”. Unfortunately, however, it is now characterized by something completely different. With these words, we try to shed some light on our decisions from the last match day: light that was already shed by our precentor in the Emscher-Tribüne shortly before kick-off. With the few sentences that echoed through the loudspeaker system in the Stadion Niederrhein, we did not want to fuel any knowledge of domination, but merely inform as many people as possible before the game. Nevertheless, we would now like to give all Red & Whites the opportunity to form their own opinion on the whole topic. Whether or not it was intentional by a certain group of people, there is a lot of misinformation out there that we would like to clear up. But let’s start at the beginning:
Like probably 80% of the fan base of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, we were initially surprised by the appointment of Jörn Nowak as the new head coach. Surprise that someone with no coaching experience, an inglorious past at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (regardless of the transfer fee received at the time and obviously better pay and prospects at the neighboring club), an even more inglorious departure in Essen and a character that is more than difficult in human terms, should succeed Mike Terranova. The astonishment at this change was quickly followed by anger and resentment towards the club officials, who were well aware of the negativity of the departure at the time. At that point in time, nobody knew that there could have been a clear sporting improvement, in contrast to recent years, and what quality the squad possesses, based on the players’ names alone.
So it happened that a relatively large group came together well before the 2023/24 season to enter into a dialogue with the club and the person Jörn Nowak. We knew that we would no longer be able to prevent the decision to hire him, and we jointly considered further options for action. Participants in this internal meeting included representatives of the active fan scene, members of the RWO fan council, and the Oberhausen fan support group, as well as the entire board of directors, almost all members of the supervisory board, and the sporting management.
We deliberately took the lead in the discussion and initially raised provocative questions and topics with the club. The decision of Patrick Bauder and all other associated supporters to hire Jörn Nowak as a coach was described by us both then and now as an “all-in decision”. In this case, this means that they deliberately and intentionally went against the interests of a large number of RWO members in order to advance the supposed and hoped-for success of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and to put this above all else. After our “settlement”, the representatives spoke and explained the situation and the future direction of the club. After a very open discussion, we accepted the club’s decision and promised our full support – both on and off the pitch. We didn’t even break this promise until yesterday’s match day during the season: quite the opposite. With a specially planned barbecue evening with the first team, including staff, personal exchanges with individual players and visual and acoustic support even in difficult phases (the matches in the Niederrhein Cup should be mentioned here), we wanted to reinforce the statements made before the season. However, the premise of our full support included the fact that sporting success, or at least the possibility of keeping hope alive for as long as possible, is the top priority.
This results from the fact that we have clearly formulated and communicated to the club that Jörn Nowak will not receive any credit from us. By contrast, in the case of people like Mike Terranova, who is truly devoted to the club and its cause, slips and sporting failures can be forgiven more easily. The club went out on a limb with the transfer decision, was aware of this fact and was fully convinced of the sporting success. All those involved in the conversation at the time clearly and willingly agreed with this claim and our demand regarding the sporting situation!
After a sporting up and down, especially in the two “autumn months”, and a lack of positive results, a small group of players from the first team sought dialogue with the fan scene and described the lack of acceptance of Jörn Nowak as a coach in the team. In addition, various situations arose that revealed the already known and questionable character of Jörn Nowak during the first departure. This led to another meeting between the team council, the sporting management, the trainer and a handful of people from the active fan scene. With the information from the team and the sporting failure, it became clear to all parties that the next four games before the winter break against the clearly weaker teams had to be won. The team should show that they stand behind their trainer and finally leave their hearts on the pitch. And once again, everyone involved agreed with these statements and the demand.
Although the team initially enabled the club to climb several places in the table after two wins and the message from the team seemed clear, an inexplicable and again dreadful draw against the village club Wiedenbrück followed. Fortunately, due to two game cancellations and the early onset of the winter break, the next game of the season did not start until 2024.
With a view of the table and the two catch-up games behind us, we mobilized for the game against Gladbach, whose reputation was followed by almost 500 spectators. To reaffirm our support for the team, this game was again introduced with a small choreography and our usual battle cries. During the game and after almost 75 minutes of continuous support, isolated cries arose from the block, criticizing the missed opportunity, but also the general appearance of the team. However, this in no way diminished our appearance in the entire 95 minutes. Whether the mentioned interjections should not be better revealed only afterwards or were inappropriate, everyone should judge for themselves. However, criticism as a means of expressing one’s displeasure is more than justified in view of the catastrophic performance against the second team of Mönchengladbach!
After the game, we gathered our things as quickly as possible and left the block within a very short time to avoid a confrontation. In the previous season, either motivational phrases were used to prepare the team for the next task after defeats, or a direct confrontation was sought to find out reasons for the defeat and to raise the tone – the well-known phrase of the carrot and the stick. Last Saturday, however, we did not want to enter into a discourse with the team for good reason, in order to make a further statement on our part. The fact that Jörn Nowak followed us almost to the exit at the fence, thus clearly disrespecting our decision, once again testifies to a weak character. After confused shouting, the sentence “That’s the last straw and you’re the last straw” from Mr. Nowak and a short period of confusion for everyone involved, we did go into confrontation for a short time. However, we quickly realized that this seemed to make little sense and went home.
In the following days, representatives sat together in a total of more than 15 hours of meetings (internally or with club officials) and discussed the club’s overall situation. Representatives of the team, who once again reported on untenable conditions between Jörn Nowak and the team, were therefore once again included in our decision. Two options were then negotiated internally as a further course of action: Either to put the protest that had been announced months earlier into action or to refrain from the protest for the time being in the interest of the Kleeblatt bond. The second of the two options was chosen after various phone calls with those in charge at the club, who pointed out a bleak future for the club to us with various scenarios and almost made us deviate from our original plan again. They suggested that our support, our commitment and our love for the club was being abused to further their own interests.
The final decision, which option we considered acceptable for us and in the interests of the club, was seen by everyone in the Stadion Niederrhein yesterday. It should be noted that this decision was supported by both fan clubs of the active fan scene and the entire fan council, including their groups, and that there were no “solo efforts” by individuals. The decision was not easy for us either, after weighing up all the arguments, but it was necessary and unavoidable.
We understand that due to the lack of information, not all red and white supporters in the stadium were on our side. Even after these open words addressed to you, not everyone will be able to understand our actions. However, some things are extremely important to us here: We accept every different opinion on this topic and we never place ourselves above the club! We announced this protest months in advance of such a situation. We gave Mr. Nowak a fair and complete chance to earn back our trust and to promote the club’s sporting success.
We invest hours and hours in this club. Not only in the stadium, in the preparation of choreos or through advertising for our club within the city area, but also through the newly founded team “Innovation RWO *”, which is responsible for all previous activities as part of the “120 years of RWO” campaign as the main persons. We can also take credit for revising the club’s statutes, developing ideas and campaigns for the club and many other commitments. In all these activities, the club is always at the forefront. Our motivation is and remains RWO – in this case, too, we believe we are acting in the best interests of the club to the best of our knowledge and belief! Furthermore, our commitment and support in the stadium is always for the club, but it is not club property that is taken out of the club’s pocket when certain personalities expect it. A vibrant fan culture is allowed to be critical, allowed to express negative opinions and does not have to be accountable to any person.
We hope that we have now been able to shed some light on the situation and that you understand our actions.
One more thing remains to be said: We are now also demanding the immediate resignation of Jörn Nowak as head coach of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in this context. Should this not happen, we will continue our protest!
Fanszene Oberhausen