The club management of Schalke 04 has to listen to a lot at the general meeting. The criticized CEO promotes the planned funding cooperative, which is intended to reduce the debt burden.

Self-criticism from the management team, calls for resignations from members: the highly indebted and relegation-threatened second division soccer club FC Schalke 04 dealt with the sad reality at the members’ meeting. At the emotional, more than six-hour event, there were some harsh accusations, especially against supervisory board chairman Axel Hefer and CEO Matthias Tillmann.

“I don’t even know how you got your job. Mr. Tillmann, live up to your responsibility and resign,” said one of the many members who took the opportunity during the approximately three-hour discussion to criticize the club’s leadership. ‘No competence on the board and supervisory board’ was the tenor of a number of speakers.

Hefer as event manager and Tillmann mostly commented objectively and calmly. “I understand the criticism and constantly question myself,” said Tillmann, who has only been in office since the beginning of the year and was brought to Schalke by Hefer, his former board colleague at the hotel comparison portal Trivago.

“We are in danger of sinking into the mediocrity of the second division,” admitted Tillmann, 40, but he blamed the former sporting management in particular. The CEO made the former sporting director Marc Wilmots the scapegoat for the current sporting situation – the club is in 14th place in the table and fears relegation to the third division. “Marc Wilmots was and remains a legend as a player. He didn’t work as a manager,” Tillmann ruled.

16 million euros annually for amortization and interest

Hefer also admitted that Wilmots was a mistake as sporting director. The former Belgian professional was dismissed in September after just nine months in the role. “We are underperforming in terms of what the budget should be,” said Tillmann, making a clear statement to the absent team and coach Kees van Wonderen: ‘The next five games before the winter break are very important. The coach knows that, the team knows that.’

The problem is that three of the five opponents are the top teams in the second division: Hamburger SV, SC Paderborn and Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Chief Financial Officer Christina Rühl-Hamers informed the 6,000 members in attendance that the club would have to plan for licensing for the 3rd division out of necessity. “The situation is, of course, still challenging,” said Rühl-Hamers, who announced that liabilities had fallen. However, they still stand at 162 million euros. The club currently has to pay 16 million euros a year for repayment and interest. “That’s an average second division squad. That means we’re currently paying for an extra squad,” Hefer complained.
To improve the situation, a funding cooperative is to raise as much as 50 million euros in equity capital. “Then the world at Schalke will look different,” said Tilmann. From January onwards, the 190,000 members are to purchase shares in the Veltins Arena at 250 euros each. The planned proceeds will be used primarily to pay off debts. There was little criticism of this approach.

Rühl-Hamers also announced that she intends to raise the prices of season tickets in the coming season after increasing the prices of day tickets.