“Enough is enough”
Fans start petition against Bundesliga boss
January 31, 2026 – 8:25 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
The situation at Werder Bremen is getting worse. In terms of sport, the club is in crisis. The fans are frustrated – and direct their anger at the sports director.
Werder Bremen fans have started an online petition against sports director Clemens Fritz. The aim of the campaign entitled “Enough is enough” is to call an extraordinary general meeting with only one item on the agenda: “Assessment of C. Fritz’s administration”. By late Friday evening, she had already found around 3,600 supporters on the “openPetition” platform.
Werder had not won nine games in a row in the Bundesliga. Coach Horst Steffen’s team is in acute danger of relegation. Many fans of the Hanseatic League accuse the former national player and long-time Werder professional Fritz of a failed transfer policy.
Werder President and Supervisory Board Chairman Hubertus Hess-Grunewald has already responded to the petition. “It has been the case in the past when sporting failures have increased frustration and worries among the membership. We take this very seriously,” he told the “Deichstube” portal and added: “We have also taken note of the petition.”
However, the 65-year-old lawyer restricted the fact that even if the necessary 7,000 member signatures were reached – a tenth of the number of members – a meeting would not automatically be called. “Such an application would then have to be examined before the organizational preparations for a general meeting were made,” explained Hess-Grunewald.
The president emphasized: “An extraordinary general meeting could hold a discussion, but not decide anything further.” Despite the criticism, he stands behind Fritz. “The Supervisory Board is fully following the new course taken by the management since the summer and is accompanying this process in a critical and constructive manner.” Hess-Grunewald continued: “We take the current situation very seriously, but we trust Clemens to make the right decisions as the responsible managing director.”
