The negative high point of this development was insolvency proceedings, which, however, could also be successfully concluded due to benefit games against Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV and Schalke 04.
“Nothing big has happened here for 25 years”
This allowed VfB to start again from scratch. However, he had lost a lot of credit with his fans and the local economy through his years of business dealings. Accordingly, it was difficult to acquire funds to build a powerful team. With the exception of the 2015/2016 season, when the club finished runners-up in the regional league, there was no thought of returning to professional football for a long time. “Nothing big has happened here for 25 years,” said Sidka on Sunday at the NDR Sportclub.
NDR Film heaves Sidka into the presidency
The former successful VfB coach returned to the Oldenburg team last year. Not as a coach, but as a president. The fact that the sports club story “The Golden Age of VfB Oldenburg” also played a large part in this sounds crazy, but it is true, as Sidka explained: “An incredible number of people have seen this film. It ultimately got me this job. It was At the time, a president was being sought because the post had been vacant for a long time. The fact that I was then, the film was a co-trigger.”
He brought Sidka back to the minds of the club’s shareholders and other officials, who are working meticulously to pave the way for a future in professional football. “Everyone tries to turn screws in the right places,” said the VfB president.
Moving to Wilhelmshaven for ascent?
In terms of sport, the chance this season seems to be greater than it has been for a long time to make the leap into the third division. In terms of fan attendance – 3,732 spectators came against Flensburg – the club need not worry either. But could VfB provide a competitive team in the third division? And even more elementary: Where would Lower Saxony play their home games? Probably not in the Marschweg Stadium. The venerable arena does not have any floodlights required by the German Football Association (DFB) for third division teams. Such would blind the vehicles on the adjacent highway.
The Oldenburgers are therefore discussing the option of playing the home games in Wilhelmshaven, 60 kilometers away, in the event of promotion. “Or our stadium will be prepared. But it would need, for example, undersoil heating and mobile floodlights,” said Sidka, who knows with a view to the stadium question: “There’s a lot coming up for us.”
VfB hopes for a new stadium and the city
VfB’s greatest wish is to build a new home ground. There are already plans for this and with the event area at the Weser-Ems-Halle there is already a possible location. The problem: “We as VfB Oldenburg can’t finance it. The city has to help,” explained Sidka, who sees the construction of an arena as a “key issue”: “And it’s not about VfB, it’s about whether football is desirable in Oldenburg.” With promotion, the traditional club would undoubtedly have even better arguments against the city to push for a stadium construction, since VfB would then be a supra-regional advertising medium.
However, Stand cannot be expected to make a quick decision on this now. And so, in the event of promotion, Oldenburg could share the fate of TSV Havelse and have to host their home games in someone else’s “living room”. The Garbsener received their guests in the stadium of Hannover 96 and tried to annoy the overwhelming competition in front of mostly only three-digit crowds. The fact that they failed to stay up was ultimately not due to the move, but to their lack of financial means.
Coach Fossi: “Can win every game”
VfB would also have in common with Havelse to go into the promotion games as an outsider. Because the Northeast season with leaders BFC Dynamo and a number of traditional clubs such as Carl Zeiss Jena, Chemnitzer FC or Energie Cottbus is considered by most experts to be stronger than the Regionalliga Nord. But: “I believe in our strength and our team. And I believe that we can win every game if we deliver what we can,” said Oldenburg coach Fossi.
If he is right, it does not seem out of the question that his president will invite him and the team to a spontaneous party in his own four walls after the relegation second leg that has not yet been scheduled. Because Wolfgang Sidka’s place of residence is: Berlin.
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sports club | 04/24/2022 | 10:50 p.m
Source: NDR