Borussia Dortmund will in future hold hybrid. That should increase the chance of Hans -Joachim Watzke – should he want to become president.
“Today, the board decided to hold the general meeting in 2025 in the hybrid format. I expressly supported this step towards more membership participation”wrote the current President Reinhold Lunow on Friday evening (03.07.2025) at X.
In the same tweet, Lunow wrote that he was before this step “Gladly obtained an opinion of our members with a digital survey” would have. “Unfortunately, this proposal did not find a majority on the board.”
In addition to Lunow Silke Seidel, the board of the BVB EV belongs as vice president and Bernd Möllmann as treasurer.
Disturbed relationship with bosses of the club and kgaa
The “Rheinmetall discussion” mentioned in the tweet is one of the reasons why the relationship between Lunow and Hans-Joachim Watzke, as managing director of the spun off and listed on the stock exchange, cooled down to freezing.
Freezing point reached: Reinhold Lunow (left) and Hans-Joachim Watzke
The sponsoring deal with the armaments group, which, according to information from the sports show, is worth more than 20 million euros over the term of three years, was controversial within the association and fans. At the general meeting in 2024, the majority of the voters defended him, Watzke defended him.
The violent discussions in front of and behind the scenes are said to have prompted Lunow to run again with Watzke, contrary to first considerations and agreements. The 71 -year -old doctor officially announced this in early June of this year.
This started an election campaign, although Watzke continues to keep his candidacy open. It is only official that he will withdraw “in autumn” in 2025 as managing director from the KGAA.
In theory, far more than 200,000 members can now vote
The general assembly 2025 has not yet been scheduled. Since it has always been held on Dead Sunday in recent years, November 23 can be expected.
The resolution of Friday will be held for the first time hybrid. So not only the physically in the members of the Westphalia halls can be discussed and coordinated again, but also digitally all others of the well more than 200,000 members.
If the awater is running, the hybrid coordination should benefit him, since he is much better known than his adversary. Lunow would probably have better chances if present members were only allowed to vote on site, since he knows many fans who are actively involved in club life and support in the stadium. From this group, Jakob Scholz, the chairman of the fan and funding department, who belongs to the Lunow team and would get a place on the new board.
Election committee suggests
Formally, an election committee must determine which candidates he suggests, among other things, to choose the EV. This decision is expected for September.