Changes at management level
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The relegation-threatened third division team SSV Ulm 1846 will part ways with coach Pavel Dotchev at the end of the season. CEO Dominik Schwärzel announced this at a press conference at which the future sports director Murat Isik was also introduced.
Dotchev, the third division’s record coach with 387 games, has been on the Ulm team’s sidelines since November, but only scored an average of 0.86 points in 22 games. The Sparrows are 18th in the table with three game days to go. already eight points behind the first non-relegation place. It is almost impossible to avoid another fall into the regional league. On Saturday (4:30 p.m.) the Swabians will meet Viktoria Köln.
“We have decided not to go with Pavel Dotchev in the regional league in the future,” said Schwärzel. We had a “good conversation” with the coach. Dotchev “did an excellent job,” continued Schwärzel. However, the club is striving for a “consistent rebuilding at all levels”.
Isik wants “more regionality” in the SSV Ulm squad
Isik, currently coach and squad planner for the regional league team TSG Balingen, will be a defining face of the new structure. The 50-year-old will officially take up his post on May 18th. Isik explained that it was important to him to bring “more regionality and identification” into the squad in the future. The goal must be for 60 to 70 percent of the player roster to come from the surrounding area.
In addition, a uniform game system should be implemented from the U15 level onwards and ensure more permeability from the youngsters to the first team. Isik follows Stephan Schwarz in Ulm, from whom the club parted ways at the beginning of March. Former sports director Markus Thiele had previously fallen victim to the Swabians’ sporting misery. A year after relegation from the 2nd Bundesliga, the team is now about to drop back into the fourth division.
