Will remain an advisor until the end of the season
FC Schalke 04 and sports director Peter Knäbel are going their separate ways early. After the separation at the end of the season was announced in November, the Royal Blues confirmed on New Year’s Day that they would immediately terminate the 57-year-old’s contract. However, Knäbel will remain with Schalke as an advisor until June 30th.
Knäbel has worked for S04 since April 2018 and as sports director since March 2021. The Bundesliga relegated team is lagging far behind its own demands in the 2nd league. Instead of playing for direct promotion, Schalke is only in 14th place. Coach Thomas Reis has already been replaced by the Belgian Karel Geraerts. There was also repeated criticism of the composition of the squad, which was mainly the responsibility of Knäbel.
With 3 Schalke players: Biggest market value losers in the 2nd Bundesliga
“Together with our new CEO Matthias Tillmann and Christina Rühl-Hamers, we made the decision to restructure football at Schalke without the position of the Sports Director. Since we want to make these adjustments at the start of the new year, we mutually agreed with Peter to end the collaboration at board level on January 1st. Further steps will be taken by the board of directors in a timely manner,” explained the chairman of the supervisory board, Axel Hefer. In the future, sports director André Hechelmann will become even more of a focus when it comes to transfers.
Community
Join the discussion about Schalke
This way!
Knäbel added: “With my decision to return to my family in Switzerland after this season, the structural process initiated by the Supervisory Board and Executive Board has accelerated somewhat and has now reached a point at which my departure from the Executive Board is understandable in terms of both content and timing . At the end of the year, my entire attention was focused on stabilizing the sport, which has also been achieved with the last results. For me, after almost six years, one of the most intense periods of my professional life comes to an end, with the moment of promotion in the home game against FC St. Pauli as an absolute sporting highlight and with the change of the main sponsor in the middle of the Corona crisis as a strategic highlight. At this point I would like to thank the Supervisory Board, my colleagues on the Executive Board and the employees for their cooperation. I wish them, the club and the fans all the best and will do all I can to support them over the next six months in pushing forward some pioneering projects in the areas of digitalization and sports science.”
To home page