“Players are left defenseless”
©IMAGO
SSV Ulm has drawn personnel consequences. After the internal quarrels surrounding the team and the sporting leadership that became public, the third division team announced the separation of coach Moritz Glasbrenner with assistant Max Kohlenberg and managing director Markus Thiele.
On Monday, a letter from the team to the club’s management was leaked, in which captain Johannes Reichert and goalkeeper Christian Ortag called for a new start on behalf of the team. It read about destroyed trust and a poisoned atmosphere. After separating from head coach Robert Lechleiter, Glasbrenner only took over the position in mid-September, initially on an interim basis.
The club did not go into details in a statement, only mentioning open discussions with managing director Thiele, which, however, “no longer led to the unity and mutual trust necessary for a successful sporting future.” An amicable and fair separation was agreed upon. We want to provide information about the succession plan for the official and the coaching team in the coming days.
Call for help from the Ulm team: “Players are defenseless”
“It is with a heavy heart that we have to inform you that the situation within the team has now become unbearable,” Reichert and Ortag wrote in their letter. “The atmosphere is poisoned, trust is destroyed. The relationship between the team, coach and especially the sports director is completely broken.”
It continues: “The players are completely defenseless. They receive no backing, no support, no trust. Instead, they are made into scapegoats internally and publicly. Many of us are at the end of our strength – mentally, emotionally and humanly. The situation is also almost unbearable for us personally.”
After relegation to the 3rd league, the Ulm team is once again concerned with staying in their league. After 14 match days, the Sparrows are in 18th place in the table with 13 points. The gap to the saving bank is four points. However, there has been no sign of any improvement in the situation in the past few weeks. Instead, the last five league games were lost, some significantly. Bitter defeats against Ingolstadt (1:4), Verl (0:5) and Rostock (0:5) ensured that the SSV now has the second most goals conceded in the league with 33. Only newcomer Schweinfurt has two more. On the 15th matchday the team will play against bottom team TSV Havelse (to the 3rd league table).
It’s a shame that Mr. Oelmayer didn’t get it too. So the whole thing doesn’t really seem like a reboot. It seems as if he’s glued to his chair and denies any kind of responsibility for his actions – just as we know from politics.
I would definitely be interested in the minutes of the AR meeting. As a member of the committee, he could certainly use his vote to secure a three-quarters majority – and thus prevent his own deselection from the board…
