On Friday evening (19.30), Wuppertaler SV want to take the lead in the standings in the Regionalliga West, at least for one night. But there are rumblings behind the scenes.
Wuppertaler SV got off to a spectacular and successful start to the Regionalliga season with two overtime victories. On Friday evening, they have the chance to take over the top spot in the table at least for one night at the Parkstadion from FC Schalke 04’s U23, which has only one point after two games. It would at least be a further exclamation mark in the direction of the desired promotion to the 3rd division. But now, of all times, there is a lot of trouble behind the scenes at the Bergisch.
Norbert Müller, a member of the board of directors, has resigned from the supervisory body with immediate effect. “The function of the WSV’s board of directors (VWR) is to critically accompany the work of the board and, if necessary, to demand corrections,” Müller wrote in an open letter that is printed in the WSV forum Rot-Blau.com, among other places. “Applying the guidelines from our statutes, the VWR must protect the club from all conceivable damage. If, as a member of the VWR, I cannot exercise this control function for reasons for which I am not responsible, my only option is to resign my mandate.”
He would explain his reasons at the upcoming general meeting. It was important to Müller that his resignation had nothing to do with Friedhelm Runge and his commitment to the WSV. “On the contrary: without Friedhelm Runge, the club would no longer exist and without his financial support, the current playing operations would not be secured either. Without him, we could not even dream of more!”
Müller accused the club’s governing bodies of a lack of professionalism: “If our dream of promotion is to come true, however, we will need more than just Friedhelm Runge: above all, we will need professionalism in the eV’s governing bodies,” he warned. “Hence my wake-up call now, when people are already celebrating but the time for corrections has not yet expired.” He said his former colleagues on the board in particular lacked professionalism.
In addition, he hinted that the Board of Directors was not doing things by the book: “I very much regret my resignation from the VWR, but after the uncountable, gruelling and ultimately failed attempts to correct visible undesirable developments to the detriment of the club internally, the only way I can see is to ask the club’s general meeting to deal with these issues. That is my understanding of democratic procedures in an association,” Müller wrote. “Only the AGM is authorised to decide whether the effects of unauthorised actions can be ‘healed’ retroactively and how the future of the association can be secured in the long term.”
With his resignation, he also wants to put the other members of the board of directors under pressure: “But perhaps some of the protagonists will now feel compelled to implement the indispensable corrections before the general meeting. If that is the case, then at least my goal, which I have not been able to achieve in the last few months, would have been achieved and I would use ‘necessity knows no commandment’ as a justification for the path I have chosen here.