The tax office of the city of Krefeld has filed an application to open insolvency proceedings against KFC Uerdingen. The reason: the financial situation is “dramatically bad”.
All signs point to a storm at KFC Uerdingen – once again. After an open letter from the team caused a stir on Friday, it is now clear: the regional league team is facing bankruptcy. The city’s tax office Krefeld has filed an application to open proceedings. The club announced this on Monday.
This news does not come as a surprise, said board member Dirk Röthig in a statement published on the KFC website. “Since we took office in October 2024, we have tried everything to bring the club into stable conditions,” but efforts to avert the threat of insolvency have failed, said Röthig.
Financial situation “dramatically bad”
“We are very sorry for the many loyal KFC fans, but of course also for the self-sacrificing team around our coach René Lewejohann.” In the Regional League West KFC currently occupies a secure midfield position in eleventh place.
On the other hand, the club’s financial situation is “dramatically bad,” said Röthig. At the start of the season in the summer, the loss was around 600,000 euros. When Röthig joined the board together with Peter Kahstein in October, it had already grown to one million euros. If we continued like this, the liabilities would add up to 2.2 million euros by the end of the season, explained Röthig. “The team costs around 1.4 million euros for the current season. That’s a lot for the fourth division – and unfortunately too much if there is no financing for it.”
“One castle in the air built after another”
In this context, Röthig also made allegations against his colleagues on the board. One has the feeling that “here we were not acting in the interests of the club, but rather in the interests of personal interests.” It has to be said so harshly: “One castle in the air was built after another.”
Röthig left it open in the statement as to what will happen next with the KFC. The fact is: nine points will be deducted from the club in the event of insolvency proceedings. This would mean that the Krefeld team would slip to second to last place in the Regionalliga West table, but would still have a chance of staying in the league. However, an early withdrawal from gaming operations would also be possible.
Fourth bankruptcy for KFC
Many questions remain. For the moment, Röthig only says this much: “We hope that with the help of an insolvency administrator we will now be able to save the club. Further postponement, perhaps driven by the hope of strong financial backers, would not have made things better, but worse .” Difficult times await KFC, but people in Krefeld are familiar with this: the club had to file for bankruptcy in 2002, 2005 and 2007.
Our sources:
- Statement on the KFC Uerdingen website
