Hajo Sommers was president of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen for 20 years. The club has been trying in vain to get out of the regional league for twelve years. From a league that gives Sommers much more than just a headache. In an interview with sportschau.de, the 66-year-old, who left office this January, talks about the problems with the league and the associations. About money and what he would change. If only he could.
Sports show: Mr. Sommers, as president of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, you know your way around the 4th league very well…
Hajo Sommers: Yes, we’ve been in this league for 12 years now, we just can’t get out of it. We were close a few times and even came second, but that’s it. Somehow there is always at least one club every season that pulls ahead and does the thing.
Sports show: Actually, from a sporting point of view, that’s quite okay. Everyone has the same chances and whoever ends up on top gets promoted. What’s wrong with that?
Summer: The structure of the five German regional leagues is incorrect. Here in North Rhine-Westphalia we have a very strong regional league, which is perhaps just as good as the Eastern League in terms of quality. But in Bavaria there is a regional league of the same level – but the level of football there is considerably lower. Most of the teams there are at best at the level of the fifth league here.
Sports show: What is the regional league for you? A professional league? Upscale amateur football? Where should the 4th league be classified?
Summer: I don’t think the league knows that exactly. It is a cross between professional football and amateur sport. You can see that just by looking at the salary structure of the players. Monthly earnings range from 530 euros for a student to 15,000 euros for a player on the second team of a professional club.
Sports show: What does it look like at your club in Oberhausen? Do you work under professional conditions?
Summer: Yes, there is full profit at RWO. We train in the morning at 10 or 11 a.m., two days a week even twice a day. As a player, you can’t have another full-time job. Nevertheless, we have players in the squad who only get 530 euros. A regional league player lives between roots and bark when it comes to football. Ambitious players can only see this league as a stopover. If they’re constantly languishing at this level, then – from a life planning perspective – they should actually look for a real job and give up football.
Sports show: But the league works as a foundation for “real” professional football, right?
Summer: From my point of view, the 4th league – as it is set up at the moment – makes no sense. The clubs burn a lot of money year after year, the benefit is simply not there. Not a single club in the 4th league could manage without sponsors. The expenses are significantly higher than the income.
Sports show: Do you have enough sponsors in Oberhausen?
Summer: It is always extremely difficult to find enough money to get through a regional league season. We are even now recognizing a phenomenon: our viewer numbers are increasing. Not just those of our club, but also those of other clubs. More and more young people are coming to us who find the behavior in the 1st and 2nd leagues getting on their nerves. They say: ‘You still play honest football’. But: At the same time, the sponsors are no longer there. It is even becoming increasingly difficult to find enough donors.
Sports show: Why do sponsors have such a hard time with the 4th league?
Summer: As a sponsor you hardly get anything back. Anyone who gives money in the 4th league is actually a patron. The advertising value is hardly measurable, which also has to do with the fact that there are no television broadcasts. In addition, the state associations that are responsible for the regional leagues are a total failure in terms of marketing. Nothing really happens there.
Sports show: Would it be conceivable for the clubs to market the league themselves?
Summer: That would not only be conceivable, but also much better. Even if we could do something like live streaming of the games ourselves and market them. During Corona times, this happened for two years. We in Oberhausen had a really nice one back then “Sports show for little ones” made. With three cameras and so on. Then we were no longer allowed to do that because of the association’s interests. Since then: The lake has rested quietly.
Sports show: Is there an alliance of the affected clubs to change something?
Summer: This happened when Rot-Weiss Essen was still in the league. At that time, Wuppertaler SV, RW Oberhausen, RW Essen, Alemannia Aachen and Fortuna Cologne got together and formed an alliance that aggressively called for changes to the association. That no longer exists now. There is an atmosphere of fear; no one dares to speak against the association. For fear of reprisals: Unfavorable appointments, unfavorable referee appointments, penalties.
Sports show: What would need to be changed?
Summer: We need a two-track 3rd league to ensure that all regional league champions can be promoted. The second teams of the professional clubs would have to disappear from the league. Why don’t they have their own round of second representatives where they can compete with their talents and substitute players from the professional squad? In England they just shake their heads because we don’t have anything like that. The second teams bring almost no spectators with them, they simply cost us other clubs a lot of money.
Sports show: What would you do in Oberhausen if an investor came along who had a lot of money to bring the club up as quickly as possible?
Summer: Maybe I wouldn’t feel particularly comfortable with it, but from the club’s point of view I would go along with it. But only if it was someone who had a concept for at least four or five years. That would be great if I were suddenly in a position to not only finance our professional team properly. I’m also thinking about the youth department. We compete against the best opponents from Germany in the youth sector – I would really like to be able to offer our coaches permanent positions. Instead of dismissing them with a 400 euro job.
The interview was conducted by Olaf Jansen