Great, I’m happy for Freiburg and Union Berlin. Hopefully they’ll make it to the Champions League. Oil sheiks and oligarchs take over football clubs and associations are founded to market unhealthy sugar water. The fact that Freiburg and Union as registered clubs (!), of which there are only four in the league, manage to establish themselves at the top with great and meticulous work fills me with joy. The classic virtues of football are still alive there.
A club like Union, which has had an investor investor for many years, can hardly be associated with classic football virtues. Or is an investor ok after all?
On the subject:
I’m slowly seeing Schwarz that we’ll play in the CL next year. If that doesn’t work out, hopefully Rose will leave.
Haha, the old fairy tale about investors at Union. And then comment with the coat of arms so snooty with half knowledge about Union.
Kölmel saved us the license more than 20 (!!) years ago with support in the single-digit millions, in return he received a share of the TV income for decades. You can write what you want here, but Kölmel hasn’t pumped any investments into the club for years, instead he defers the TV income from the Bundesliga years.
So if you look at it completely with a microscope: yes, Union is an investor club, overwhelming financial injections in the seven-figure range made the visionary Kölmel guess more than 20 years ago that the club will possibly be in the top 4 of the Bundesliga by 2023, so that he can get a return on investment with a return of 12900%, the rascal. Year after year, he contributes €0 so that the Unioner transfer offensive can continue to play for championships. Maybe UEFA should investigate.
Well, first of all, it wasn’t a single-digit million sum that he gave at the time, and Kölmel also regularly invests in Union, incidentally also helped finance the stadium renovation and saved Union from bankruptcy several times.
So Union is an investor club, and without Kölmel the club might not even exist anymore who knows.
So to pretend that Union is a fairytale old club that has worked hard and hard for itself while Leipzig gets everything blown in the A….. is just wrong.
Incidentally, in addition to Union, Kölmel has also invested in Leipzig and several other clubs in the east.
I would be interested in the list. How much money was it? How many times has the club been saved by him? Please substantiate with sources.
Union borrowed money from Kölmel and gave a percentage of the TV marketing as financial compensation. You can view loans as an investment, but in my opinion it is a huge difference to clubs that have (have) received money without real value or sell shares in the club (e.g. RB, TSG, WOB, B04)
And if you just take the 375 million to date as an example. of Hertha with the Peanuts of Kölmel, then one can say that the club had to work much harder than other clubs.
How else do you explain the marches of TSG and RBL through all leagues with greatly oversized budgets.
Isn’t it more difficult to be in third place with a budget in the lower third of the league? Or playing the round of 16 Euro League?
So please don’t be ridiculous, I could go on with this list forever.
According to everything you can read about it, back in 1998 it was 15 million. Yes, I know it was D Marks, but it wasn’t a single-digit sum.
Then he invested again in 2001 and then more times after that.
There are a few sources for this. It has been a topic in various sports programs a few times and you can also find many pages about it on the Internet.
As an example, I give an article in BZ from 2016 entitled “Michael Kölmel: So I gave Union a second life”, in which Kölmel gave an interview and confirmed these investments himself.
Here are a few quotes from that article:
“I gave Union a second life in 1998. Otherwise you would have filed for bankruptcy.”
“But they always counted on me. Union did not get the guarantee for the second division license in 2001 itself. I had to run again at the last second with an amount in the millions. There was a rupture. I was very pissed off and didn’t come to Berlin for a while.”
“when fans donated blood for financial rescue in 2004: In the phase of promotion to the second division in 2001, the money flowed from all sides. Nevertheless, the level of debt increased. This meant that a few years later everything was up and running again. Through the “Bleeding for Union” campaign, I got closer to the club again. I contributed to the granting of the license.”
“Ten million euros that I would actually get from Union have been permanently subordinated to me for years. That stays the same.”
Here is a quote from an article by RBLive:
“Among other things, he saved Union Berlin from bankruptcy twice.”
Here is a quote from the Berliner Kurier:
“Since he started in 1998 and his original loan of 15 million marks, Kölmel has saved the Köpenicker from bankruptcy several times”
These are just a few quotes that you can find quickly. There are of course many other sources.
But the quotes show that Union is an investor club that has received large amounts on several occasions and they also show that Union has probably done a really bad job for a long time and has always relied on the help of Kölmel.
And that clubs like RB Leipzig get money without value is absolute nonsense. RB Leipzig is one huge advertising space for Red Bull, the arena is named after Red Bull, you have shirt advertising, perimeter advertising and RB advertising everywhere else in the media. This is a large marketing chain and RB gets advertising for the investment. It’s the same with the other clubs you mentioned.
And yes, it may be that Hertha got more money from Windhorst and Union had to work a little harder than others, but you can also compare Union to a number of other clubs. Most other clubs don’t have a sponsor who keeps stepping in when you’re on the verge of bankruptcy and saving the club. As a result, Union ultimately has it easier than clubs that do not have such patrons.
Especially since the multiple million amounts, especially at that time, are not nothing either.
At the end of the day it stays the same without Kölmel, Union would probably not be where they are now, Union might not even exist anymore.
I’m sorry. Maybe I don’t like seeing it, but I still don’t see any sources as to why Union might be an investors’ association. Sources have never been shown except for a few articles that no one has ever read here, from those that have posted.
Your articles usually refer to the period 1998-2001 and all describe the facts that are already known.
According to what you have now posted, the well-known 15 million marks (ergo 7.5 million euros) are from 1998 and then an ominous further 5 million marks or 2.5 million euros. Otherwise you wouldn’t get the 10 million that Union Kölmel owes. By the way, that was a negative business until today. Loan rescue or not. The money has to be paid back and we have partially assigned TV rights for it. And pushing back the repayment date by a couple of years, as the articles say, isn’t new money. I only repay debts later.
It is always suggested by a few users (with whatever intention) that Union would be an investor club. This then happens regularly after a good game or a transfer. This then puts this and that into perspective or questions it. However, it has not been explained to date, no source shown that linearly proves that the current success, a transfer made with any investors or constant cash flows from individuals in the last 10-20 years was made, as these do not exist.
On the contrary: newspaper articles that have already had their best days behind them, which report on events from 20-25 years ago, are frantically dug up.
– Union does not get money from people to buy players, pay their salaries or invest in infrastructure
– Players, salaries, infrastructure can only grow steadily with success
– In 1998, Union received a loan of 15 million Deutschmarks and apparently another 4-5 million Deutschmarks by 2001 (I have never read numbers like that, but took them out of your self-written report)
– In 2004, thousands of citizens of Union, Berliners, Brandenburgers and friends (probably also from Cologne) donated money to Union for the license
investor club? Should everyone answer themselves…