On Saturday (1.30 p.m.) FC Schalke 04 will be visiting Karlsruher SC. Before the game, coach Dimitrios Grammozis answered questions from the press. However, the focus is not only on sports. Above all, the controversial sponsorship by the Russian gas company Gazprom was an issue.
No sooner had the PK started than FC Schalke 04 gave the first signal in this case: Press spokesman Marc Siekmann announced as advance information: “Matthias Warnig has resigned from his position on the supervisory board with immediate effect.”
Warnig has been a member of the Knappen Supervisory Board since 2019 and, as CEO of “Nord Stream 2 AG”, is very closely linked to the S04 main sponsor Gazprom. The 66-year-old is also directly affected by the sanctions announced by the US government on Wednesday.
After the German government suspended the approval process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a result of Russian aggression towards Ukraine, US President Joe Biden announced further punitive measures. These affect both the operating company “Nord Stream 2 AG” and its management, to which Warning belongs.
For the time being, Siekmann did not allow any further inquiries. “We understand the questions that have to be asked on a day like this. We are also shocked by the pictures that emerged this morning. But we ask for your understanding that we need some time to check many things and just to advise,” said the Schalke spokesman. It is not yet possible to say exactly when the results will be available.
FC Schalke 04 youngster “more directly affected”
The invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, which started on Thursday morning, also affects FC Schalke directly from a sporting point of view: Yaroslav Mikhailov is an 18-year-old Russian in the Royal Blue squad. However, Grammozis doesn’t think the youngster will be influenced too much.
“We’ve talked about it a bit in the last few days, but not that intensively,” said the German-Greek. Of course, Mikahailov is someone who is “affected more directly than all of us. But he will still concentrate on the sporting side,” the coach continued.
Of course, the developments in Eastern Europe do not leave the players on the field cold. “I don’t think there is anyone in the team who is currently ignoring the political situation. Football is important, but the other story is much, much more important,” explained Grammozis. “We have to try to concentrate on the sporting side. But it is clear that the events that are hitting us cannot simply be ignored.”
FC Schalke has been sponsored by Gazprom since 2007. The group’s logo adorns the chest of the jerseys, among other things. The contract was only extended in March 2021 and is valid until 2024 in the second division and until 2025 in the first division. The financially stricken club from Gelsenkirchen is said to bring the paper up to eight million euros a year even in league two. It is still unclear what the consequences of early termination would be.