Decision against Northeast champions
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During the last-minute win on Friday in Bayreuth, the SpVgg Unterhaching players stormed towards the corner in celebration, goal scorer Alexander Winkler tore his jersey off his body and roared ecstatically towards the fans – towards the opposing fans. It wasn’t the guests from Upper Bavaria who were in the curve, but rather the hosts from Upper Franconia. Some Bayreuthers accepted the provocation and escalated the situation at the fence after the devastating 2:3 in the last second. However, it is now clear: at least the late winning goal in the 99th minute does not contribute to promotion. Haching foregoes the opportunity to return to the 3rd league.
“The Unterhaching game association will not take part in a possible relegation and, after considering all relevant criteria, will forego the chance of promotion to the 3rd league,” the former Bundesliga club wrote in a club statement on Tuesday. President Manfred Schwabl explained the background to this decision with a view to the financial obligations that would arise from moving up a division: “We have to be realistic and realize that the economic conditions for a resurgence do not exist.”
Unterhaching: 3rd league the goal again “in the medium term”.
Schwabl emphasized: “This is of course a disappointment for the team, the coaching team and our fans after the strong performance this season. But we will not lose sight of the prospect of promotion to League 3 in the next few years.” The supervisory board also viewed the decision as unavoidable. SpVgg says they are aiming to return to the 3rd league in the “medium term”.
Since the second representative of 1. FC Nürnberg, which leads the Bavarian regional league, is also foregoing promotion, the Würzburger Kickers are now in focus. Instead of Haching coach Sven Bender, the promotion coach from the Bayern squad could now be called Michael Schiele. The Würzburgers can no longer be pushed out of third place and thus qualify for the promotion round against the representatives of the Regionalliga Nordost. Like last year’s failed attempt against Havelse, this will probably be Lok Leipzig again.
