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More money for more influence:
billionaire
Klaus-Michael Kühne
Photo: Christina Sabrowsky/ dpa
Just one day after the official funeral service for the late Hamburg football idol Uwe Seeler,
Klaus-Michael Kühne
(85) canceled his lure offer.
He would like to invest 120 million euros in Hamburger SV, his favorite club, which, as multiple German champions and European champions in 1983, has been playing in the second Bundesliga for five years now and is also considered to be financially troubled.
However, Kühne, who lives in Switzerland, associates this high amount with a "ten-point program".
This would ensure the billionaire and the Kühne Holding associated with him a strong influence at HSV.
In addition to an increase in the shares in HSV Fußball AG from the current 15.21 percent to 39.9 percent, this could even go so far that Kühne would have an influence on the composition of the committees – instead of the current one, at least two people would be on the supervisory board could send.
The bottom line is that Kühne would get quite a bit of power at the traditional sports club.
The timing of the offer is not so spicy because of the short distance to the Uwe-Seeler memorial service, but rather because the next day, this Friday evening, a supervisory board meeting is scheduled.
And this is exactly where a long-devised restructuring plan for HSV is to be presented, which is now threatening to fade in the face of the multi-million dollar Kühne offer.
Chief Financial Officer
Thomas Wüstefeld
(53) is certainly not amused, even if he appears relaxed on the outside: "It's definitely good for the club," Wüstefeld told the German press agency about the Kühne offer.
If his ten-point program really has a future, there is one problem above all: according to the statutes, no more than a quarter of the shares may be sold to owners outside the association.
Kühne would be significantly higher and is therefore already calling for an extraordinary general meeting.
Since he knows that his previous involvement with HSV is not without controversy among the supporters, he now promises to rename the Volksparkstadion to the Uwe-Seeler-Stadion.
That would cost Kühne three to four million euros a year in the medium term, but he would fulfill the heart's desire of many fans and could possibly win them over to his side.
Financially, all of this would be manageable for Kühne, since another commitment by the entrepreneur in Hamburg is extremely lucrative.
Due to his 30 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd, even billions are flowing into Kühne's already well-filled account because of the shipping company's currently very high profits.
A lot of money doesn't always score goals
But regardless of whether HSV succumbs to the temptation of the 120 million euro deal with Kühne or not, it is certain that a lot of money does not always bring full sporting success.
There are enough prominent examples of this.
The entrepreneur Lars Windhorst
(45) , who was once celebrated as a child prodigy of the German economy,
has now invested 374 million euros in the capital club Hertha BSC.
Although there was no sporting success, the club was able to restructure itself and at the same time prevented Windhorst from gaining too much influence.
Martin Kind
also achieved dubious fame
(78).
The entrepreneur, market leader in hearing aid retail, led the Hannover 96 association as chairman of the board for over 20 years, with a brief interruption.
After his resignation in 2019, however, he was still managing director of Hannover 96 Management GmbH.
However, the board of directors has now ordered him back from this top post.
Kind has "repeatedly and seriously violated instructions and contractual agreements," the statement said.
A dispute that will certainly continue for months.
However, a large part of the followers at Maschsee had turned away from Kind long before because of his often disrespectful statements about the fan scene.
And there hasn't been any sporting success recently either, in recent years the Hanoverians have established themselves in the midfield of the second Bundesliga.
Clubs, on the other hand, are much more successful if their investors are generally more reserved because no individuals from companies are pushing themselves to the fore.
In German professional football, this is actually ensured by the 50+1 rule, which is intended to prevent the influence of investors, which is common in other countries, from becoming too great.
However, exceptions are also granted here.
The three first division clubs from Leverkusen, Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg remain unmolested by the German Football League (DFL) despite a higher investor participation.
So far, this has always been justified by the fact that the respective investors have been active for more than 20 years and that there is no disproportionate advantage for the three clubs in sporting competition - difficult for financially inferior league competitors to understand.
