Schalke 04 is not only on the brink of disaster in sporting terms, but there is also the threat of concentrated fan anger at the general meeting on Saturday.
FC Schalke 04 is once again at the bottom of the 2nd division table, the financial situation remains precarious, and the club’s leadership is facing massive criticism: the deeply disgraced traditional club is facing a turbulent general meeting. “The situation is dramatic,” former coach Peter Neururer said in an interview with the sports information service (SID), ”the way things are going at the moment, it can’t continue. It’s not just going in the wrong direction in terms of sport.”
On Saturday (April 11, 2020), at 2:00 p.m., Supervisory Board Chairman Axel Hefer and board members Matthias Tillmann and Christina Rühl-Hamers will have to give an account to several thousand members – about a series of failures, bad luck and mishaps that have brought the former Champions League regular to existential difficulties.
“The biggest problem is that there is zero sporting expertise at the top of the club,” says Neururer, who, as a member, hopes for ‘clear, specific questions and clear, specific answers’ without it getting ‘loud and angry’. ‘Then there has to be a decision on how to proceed,’ says the 69-year-old, because: ”Schalke 04 has never been so bad.”
In particular, CEO Tillmann, who has been in office since the beginning of the year and has been given a great deal of power by Hefer, his long-standing board colleague at the hotel comparison portal Trivago, is in need of explanation. His track record is poor. Eurofighter Marc Wilmots was just as much a mistake as sports director as the contract extension with the now-fired coach Karel Geraerts. The new coach Kees van Wonderen has also made little progress so far. “Who came up with the idea that he is the right man for Schalke?” Neururer asks.
Squad planner Ben Manga has been installed as the new strong man, but of his 15 new signings, only goal scorer Moussa Sylla has so far turned out to be an asset. “Horribly bad” is what the former Frankfurt chief scout is doing at Schalke ‘from his position,’ says Neururer. They may have been ‘a little too brave’ and ‘focused too much on potential and the future,’ Tillmann admitted in the meantime.
Hefer is also beginning to suspect that his CEO could be overwhelmed by the sporting responsibility. The head of the supervisory board, who is not up for election on Saturday, has already thought aloud about reviving the abolished and, in view of the horrendous debts, probably also unnecessary position of sporting director.
Alongside the club’s sporting plight, finances are the most explosive topic. Despite a strict policy of cutting costs, Schalke still has debts of €162 million. Even more dangerous: negative equity has increased to €104 million – but it would have to be reduced by at least five percent by the end of the year, otherwise there is a risk of points being deducted in the next season.
Fresh money is to come from a funding cooperative, according to Tillmann’s plan, which he wants to present on Saturday. The members are to buy shares in the arena. The income is to be used primarily to “reduce the legacy of the past.” Schalke currently pays 16 million euros annually in interest and repayments alone. A coronavirus loan, originally for 35 million euros, still has to be repaid, and two fan bonds with a total volume of 50 million euros will also fall due in the next three years.