Newsblog for 1. FC Cologne
Funkel canceled 1st FC Köln: “So it makes no sense”
Updated on May 23, 2025 – 4:40 p.m.Reading time: 74 min.
The 1. FC Köln is the football club from the cathedral city. In the New sticker on T-Online you will find all the important messages about the “billy goats”.
Friedhelm Funkel does not remain head coach of 1. FC Köln. The 71-year-old confirmed this. He “did not feel 100 percent approval in the committees,” said the promotion coach to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”.
Funkel would therefore have liked to continue as a head coach. “I really didn’t make the decision easy. I would have loved to stay FC coaches. But unfortunately it doesn’t make sense,” said the 71-year-old. His decision is “irrefutable”.
FC reacted with a statement by sports director Thomas Kessler: “Today we had a very open and respectful conversation with Friedhelm Funkel. We have shown that we have various discussions with potential candidates as part of a responsible selection process,” said Kessler.
And further: “Friedhelm then informed us that he can absolutely understand the need for such a process for such an important position, but has decided not to take part. We have agreed to stay in close exchange in order to consider together the form of Friedhelm in the future.”
After Mark Uth, who ended his career and honored the last game of the season against Kaiserslautern in the stadium, the 1. FC Köln said goodbye to six more professionals: Tim Lemperle, Dejan Ljubicic, Marvin Obuz, Mathias Olesesen, Philipp Pentke and Anthony Racioppi left the club.
With the exception of Ljubicic, who completed the medical check at his new Club Dinamo Zagreb this week and was not present this week, the players were adopted on Monday evening at the end of the season in the Bickendorfer Club “Schrotty”. On Friday, FC officially announced the personal details.
Thomas Kessler officially becomes the new sports director at 1. FC Köln. The club announced on Thursday. However, Kessler will not become part of the management, but will bear the title of the sports director in the future. Christian Keller, who had to leave the club after the 32nd matchday, had previously officially worked as managing director of sports.
Similar to Friedhelm Funkel, Kessler was initially installed as an interim solution. In contrast to the 71-year-old, Kessler should now permanently remain part of the sporting top of the club. Kessler’s contract initially runs until 2027, the association continued to say on Thursday.
As the first personnel after the ascent, the 1st FC Köln presented a new managing director on Wednesday: Philipp Liesenfeld will in future be responsible for marketing and sales at the goats. The 37-year-old has been working for the club since 2012 and has recently held the management of the corporate development and internationalization. Now Liesenfeld follows the Markus Rejek, which was eliminated in February.
“We are very happy to have won a leader with Philipp Liesenfeld from their own ranks for this key position,” said FC President Werner Wolf after a selection process several months. With the planned self -marketing from 2026, the new managing director is waiting for a big task in the coming months. This is “an important step in the strategic orientation of the FC, which we will tackle courage and creativity in order to continue to strengthen the economic basis of the FC,” says Liesenfeld himself to the challenge.
In addition to finance manager Philipp Türoff, Liesenfeld is currently the second strong man at the Geißbockheim. It should also be decided that Thomas Kessler will continue to answer the sporting area. However, it is still unclear whether the former goalkeeper will continue to do so as a sports director or will also move to the management.