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Martin Kind may remain in office for the time being
Photo: Rainer Droese / localpic / IMAGO
The dispute at the second division football club Hannover 96 is entering the next round: thanks to a decision by the district court in Hanover, Martin Kind is allowed to continue working as managing director until the date of a hearing.
An injunction regulates that Kind may continue normal and urgent business of Management GmbH until the hearing on August 16, as confirmed by the district court at the request of the German Press Agency.
The majority shareholder, Kind, was surprisingly dismissed as managing director of Hannover 96 Management GmbH last week.
Kind does not consider the dismissal to be lawful and is contesting it in court.
Since then, the relationship between the parent club on the one hand and Kind's professional football division on the other has become increasingly strained.
At Hannover 96 there is a complicated structure of several companies.
Kind is the majority shareholder of Hannover 96 Sales&Service GmbH&Co.
KG, which owns 100 percent of professional football KGaA.
However, since the 50+1 rule in Germany stipulates that the parent association must always have the majority of votes in an outsourced corporation, the managing directors of the KGaA are appointed by Hannover 96 Management GmbH.
It is 100 percent owned by the parent club.
Following allegations of breach of contract against Kind, the club's professional football arm has denied the parent club's allegations.
"Further legal processing of the assertions made and at the same time discrediting Mr. Martin Kind will take place at a legal level, with all the associated consequences, in order to avert further damage and dangers from Hannover 96," said the professional football KGaA.
Child denies all allegations
The parent association had accused Kind of repeatedly violating the so-called Hanover 96 Treaty and the funding agreements concluded at the same time.
Kind himself told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung: "These are secondary theaters of war, they don't name the supposedly important reasons."
Kind has been the strongman at Hannover 96 since 1997, with one brief interruption, and is one of the most controversial figures in German football.
He is particularly unpopular in parts of the fan scene because he has repeatedly spoken out in favor of the end of the 50+1 rule.
kjo/dpa/sid
