It could all be so nice for Fortuna Dusseldorf. If the club receives its members on Sunday for the annual general meeting, certainly on the recent sporting achievements looks back: on the surprisingly sovereign league last season, the safe derbies victory against 1. FC Cologne in early November, the winter in the DFB Cup.
Nevertheless, it should be uncomfortable for the Fortuna officers at the club meeting. Reason is the affair around chief executive Thomas Röttgermann. In September, SPIEGEL reported on the app project "MySport", which Röttgermann - without knowledge of the Fortuna Supervisory Board - had pushed along with his job in Düsseldorf (read the story here). In addition, Röttgermann had awarded one of his two "MySport" colleagues a director at Fortuna.
Press release that reads like an acquittal for Röttgermann
As a result, Röttgermann repeatedly came up with questionable statements. So he told the SPIEGEL that when he took office at Fortuna in April, he "immediately terminated any entrepreneurial or economic direct or indirect involvement in the project". Several e-mails suggest that this is not true. At the beginning of September, Röttgermann had been included in an internal "implementation plan" as co-manager for all project tasks at "MySport".
Fortuna's Supervisory Board nonetheless sticks to its executive board. At the end of October, the association announced in a press release that the supervisory body was "still convinced" that Röttgermann was "the right person". It had turned out in the joint discussions "that the other contributors to the development of the App idea have confirmed the presentation of Thomas Röttgermann, that he has left the entrepreneurial cooperation with the beginning of his work at Fortuna Dusseldorf" and "in the episode was only supportive ".
Even Röttgermann himself was allowed to speak. He is pleased that the Supervisory Board "has confirmed my presentation".
Amazing statements - which were not initially planned as internal mails prove. On October 22, Supervisory Board Chairman Reinhold Ernst sent a proposal for the later published statement to the other Council members, he is the SPIEGEL before. It contains sentences that will not make it into the final version later. For example, the in-house investigation revealed that "referral to the app idea was more extensive than originally stated." Or: "The way of information and processing by Thomas Röttgermann" do not "correspond to our understanding of a trusting cooperation".
A change of heart after interventions by members of the Supervisory Board
In fact, an internal investigation had revealed further incriminating evidence against Röttgermann. On October 8, Reinhold Ernst sent a message to his board colleagues. In it Ernst informs that "among other things two further Mails" on topic "MySport" with Röttgermann were found. In addition, Röttgermann is said to have presented a "Click Dummy" produced for business partners of "MySport", ie a kind of demo version of the app, as well as a "explanatory video" for "MySport" to a supervisory board. At least that's what it says in an e-mail from a member of the Supervisory Board.
Nevertheless, the first draft of an opinion criticizing Röttgermann did not succeed in publishing it. Where did the change of heart?
He goes back to the intervention of some members of the Supervisory Board. Dirk Böcker, an ex-professional, is the first. After chairman Ernst had shared his statement on October 22, Böcker contacted him by e-mail. He complains that Röttgermann is addressed by certain statements, he considered such phrases "as not effective and even wrong." It is imperative that "we do not let our VV (chairman of the board, the editor) stand in the clearing anymore".
After a brief exchange of mail, Supervisory Board Chairman Ernst breaks in: "We will make a new text proposal," writes the Wirtschaftsanwalt to Böcker, as if he were not a superior but a commander. As a result, the members of the Supervisory Board Sebastian Fuchs and Björn Borgerding also advocate including Röttgermann in the communication itself. At the end there is a press release that reads as an acquittal for Thomas Röttgermann. Why does the Supervisory Board continue to strengthen its CEO, even though it has demonstrably betrayed the body several times?
A SPIEGEL inquiry to Fortuna Dusseldorf left unanswered. Supervisory Board Chairman Ernst responded to the question whether he had changed a first draft of the press release on the advice of other members of the Supervisory Board, as follows: "The Supervisory Board will report on the topics" MySport / Thomas Röttgermann "and" Robert Schäfer "at the general meeting next Sunday. " Röttgermann stressed that "click-dummy" and the "explanatory video" were created before his time at Fortuna, but left a direct demand for a possible presentation of these gadgets before a supervisory board during his time at Fortuna but unanswered.
Christian Veith was obviously too much of a case. The senior partner of Boston Consulting Group announced last week his retirement as a Fortuna board member. Veith stated, in his view, the declaration of the association in matters Röttgermann "mislead the public".
But Röttgermann still sits in the saddle. In his predecessor as CEO, Robert Schäfer, those responsible had less patience. Schäfer had been released in April, Supervisory Board boss Ernst justified this with an "intense loss of confidence". What exactly existed is still unclear. Also, when there is an agreement with Schäfer on a contract termination. The scrapped continues to receive salary from the Fortuna.
