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BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – With the decision to separate from the long-standing Russian main sponsor Gazprom, FC Schalke 04 has responded to the increasing criticism of the controversial sponsor and is therefore facing a severe financial cut. After the second division soccer team removed the company’s lettering from the jersey in the last game at Karlsruher SC on Saturday, the Gelsenkirchen-based company announced on Monday that the board of directors, with the approval of the supervisory board, had decided to end the partnership in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to end prematurely.
The club did not provide any further information, including possible new sponsors, as talks are currently being held with the main sponsor. Since 2007, the Russian state-owned company has been the most important financier of the traditional club, which has around 200 million euros in liabilities and currently receives around nine million euros per season from Gazprom Germania, a German subsidiary of the Russian state energy company. The contract runs until 2025.
A new sponsor will hardly be able to raise this amount, which is very high for a club in the second division. Nevertheless, the second division club assured in its short statement: “The complete financial ability of the club to act remains unaffected by this decision. The club management is confident of being able to present a new partner in the near future.”
With this decision, the club has drawn the consequences after a lot of criticism from all areas. DFB interim president Hans-Joachim Watzke recently spoke out against the partnership with the Russian group: “It’s dirty money now. You have to say very clearly, in every direction, that can’t exist anymore, we can’t do that accept more,” said the 62-year-old last time on ZDF.
Watzke welcomed the fact that the Revierclub had already distanced itself from Gazprom’s jersey by removing the lettering last week. “First of all, I’m very happy that Schalke showed their attitude. I hope that will continue,” he said in the “Sportstudio”. “And if it also requires the solidarity of the other clubs in Germany to get them out of this situation reasonably well, then we have to discuss how we can do it.”
The businessman Matthias Warnig, who was subject to sanctions by the USA, had already resigned his mandate as Gazprom representative on the Schalke supervisory board last Thursday. Warnig is the CEO of Nord Stream 2 AG, which is a subsidiary of the Russian energy company Gazprom. The energy giant was brought on board by former Schalke supervisory board chairman and meat producer Clemens Tnnies.
In a representative poll conducted by the YouGov opinion research institute last week, most Germans were in favor of Gazprom separating Schalke. Accordingly, 64 percent of those questioned would support this. According to YouGov, 15 percent would disagree. 21 percent did not provide any information./ri/hc/DP/eas
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