Club legend Dieter Schatzschneider has massively criticised the removal of Martin Kind as managing director of Hannover 96’s professional football company.

“If this board now takes over the professionals, that will be the end of professional football at Hannover 96,” the second-division club’s record goalscorer told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung. The 64-year-old is a close confidant of Martin Kind and is also employed as a talent scout by Hannover 96 GmbH & Co. KGaA. “I’m pissed off because people are always bashing Martin Kind, especially from the board of the club as a whole,” said Schatzschneider.

The board of parent club Hannover 96 e.V. surprisingly removed long-time club boss Kind as managing director of Management GmbH and thus also as the man responsible for professional football on Wednesday evening. The 78-year-old hearing aid entrepreneur is still the majority shareholder of the professional company. Thanks to the so-called 50+1 rule, which limits the influence of external investors only in German football, however, only the parent club may appoint the management.

“I met with Martin Kind just a fortnight ago. Without him, 96 would have long since disappeared from the football map,” former Hannover coach Peter Neururer told the newspaper HAZ. “Hopefully the people acting know exactly what they are doing and who they will have to replace there in the future. For the near future of the second division team, this decision is a disaster. “