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HSV fans in the Volksparkstadion: The arena is in need of renovation
Photo: Joern Pollex/Getty Images
After the allegations against the current board member Thomas Wüstefeld and the financial management in recent years, the loss of confidence in Hamburger SV is apparently so great that the second division football team cannot count on a guarantee from the city in the urgent issue of stadium renovation.
This was reported by the "Hamburger Abendblatt" in its Wednesday edition, citing voices from local politics.
"In the current situation, I think a guarantee is out of the question," said the budgetary spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, Thilo Kleibauer, the newspaper.
His SPD colleague Milan Pein also said: "For image reasons alone, HSV would do well to try to find a solution in the free economy."
Refurbishment required up to EM
The city of Hamburg bought the property on which the Volkspark Stadium stands from HSV two years ago for 23.5 million euros.
The sale was completed on the condition that the club use the money for the more than €20m refurbishment of the stadium, which is set to host the 2024 European Football Championship.
In fact, however, HSV put the millions into ongoing business operations, which were very loss-making during the corona pandemic, and now has to finance the stadium renovation from other sources.
CFO Wüstefeld presented HSV main sponsor HanseMerkur as a lender, but needed a guarantor for the negotiated 13 million euro loan.
According to the “Abendblatt” report, all parliamentary groups in Hamburg are currently rejecting the city taking on this role, as Wüstefeld had hoped.
A main reason for this is the annoyance in large parts of politics about HSV's handling of the income from the sale of stadium land.
"HSV has to create transparency," said Dennis Paustian-Döscher, the budget spokesman for the Greens.
CFO Wüstefeld will be heard this Thursday in the budget committee of the citizenship.
There, the 53-year-old should also explain what HSV used the 23.5 million euros from the city for.
Massive allegations were recently made against Wüstefeld in connection with his work as a medical entrepreneur.
He himself rejects this as a »campaign«.
cev/dpa
