On Friday evening, 3,000 S04 fans watched the documentary “Schalke 04 – Back to the We” in the arena. Now the focus is back on the future.
On Friday evening, 3,000 Schalke fans watched the RTL+ long-running documentary “Schalke 04 – Back to the We” in the Veltins Arena. Today the stadium will be sold out with 62,271 spectators for the home match against VfL Bochum (6.30 pm). Schalke’s sports director Peter Knäbel and communications director Marc Siekmann looked back once again and at the same time focused on the future.
Because Schalke has set a milestone for the Bundesliga by opening up to the outside world in this way, which will change the way it reports. “Overall, it is the case that sport certainly has to open up. Of course, this is content that fans and viewers love,” believes Schalke’s sports director Peter Knäbel. There will probably not be a continuation of the documentary in the intensity and depth in the future, but: “It will also be the case overall that this opening up will happen to some extent,” Knäbel said at the event.
So the supporters of the Königsblauen can look forward to intensive insights into the inner workings of the club in the future. “We had the conviction that after we had crashed so badly in all respects, be it sporting or otherwise, we would do a lot differently and a lot better with the new board of directors, with the new supervisory board, with new figures like Rouven Schröder, “Buyo” and “Asa” in new responsibility,” explained Siekmann. “The idea behind it was to show: This club can also be different. It can also be different than its reputation was at that moment. It wasn’t good, it was bad. And we wanted to show that Schalke 04 is something completely different than it has been in the last three, four, five years.”
That succeeded in the impressive display. Nevertheless, he said it was now important to look ahead. “We also need determination against Bochum,” warned Knäbel. One is competitive, he said. “But this year it’s about staying in the league. That sounds like little, but it is a lot. Because the competition this year to stay in the league is tougher than it has been for a long time and the competition is relegation battle tested and we, as a promoted team, have these memories that you see in the documentary.” He urges, “So we have to get better within the year to leave the appropriate number of teams behind us. “