Managing Director Martin Kind of the second division football club Hannover 96 emerged as the winner of the legal dispute with the management of the parent club over his dismissal.
In the main hearing on Tuesday, the Hanover Regional Court agreed with the majority shareholder of the 96-professional department with its lawsuit against his expulsion. This was “void,” said the presiding judge Carsten Peter Schulze in the absence of the child in his verdict.
Kind, who has been at odds with those responsible for the eV for years, was dismissed by the parent club as head of the outsourced professional division on July 27th and took legal action against the resignation. However, it is unlikely that the verdict in favor of the entrepreneur will calm the “Reds”, as even Judge Schulze said after the hearing: “The situation is very muddled. We cannot solve Hannover 96’s problem.”
The legal dispute is apparently not over. Already after the provisional decision in August, the head of the eV filed an appeal with the Celle Higher Regional Court. The parent club is also likely to defend itself against the latest decision.
Parent club has violated articles of association
The legal dispute between Kind and the eV concerned the position of managing director of Hannover 96 Management GmbH. According to the articles of association, only the supervisory board of this GmbH can decide on the appointment and dismissal of the managing director. And this supervisory board consists of two representatives each from the association and from the capital side. According to the decision of the district court, the eV tip violated the articles of association when they dismissed Kind without involving the other two members of the supervisory board.
Whether this contract violates the principle of the 50+1 rule, which in German professional football stipulates that the parent club has the right to issue instructions to external investors in such cases, was not the subject of these proceedings. It was only about whether Kind’s dismissal was legal or not.
50+1: Hanover may lose its license
According to the parent club, the club violates the rules of the German Football League (DFL) if the eV board cannot dismiss the child. That could mean that 96 will not receive a Bundesliga license in the future. The DFL is obviously of the same opinion. The “Bild” newspaper and the “Neue Presse” quoted on Monday from a letter they had from Jürgen Paepke, legal advisor to the league association, which should be understood as a clear warning to the child.
The DFL insists on the club’s “unrestricted right to issue instructions” to the capital side. In the case of the second division club, this is “an essential requirement that the structure is still considered compatible with the 50+1 rule”.
Complicated structure at 96
The dispute at the traditional club in Lower Saxony is also due to the complicated structure: Kind is the majority shareholder of Hannover 96 Sales&Service GmbH&Co. KG, which owns 100 percent of professional football KGaA. However, since the 50+1 rule in Germany stipulates that the parent association must always have the majority of votes in an outsourced corporation, the managing directors of the KGaA are appointed by Hannover 96 Management GmbH. It is 100 percent owned by the parent club.
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Current | 11.10.2022 | 14:00 clock
