Clemens Tönnies offers FC Schalke 04 financial help

Clemens Tönnies has offered his financial help to FC Schalke 04, which is ailing both sportily and economically. “I would certainly think twice. So we mustn’t let Schalke go under, I’m the very last one who doesn’t help, ”said the former supervisory board boss of the Bundesliga club in an RTL / ntv interview that was broadcast on the RTL“ Nachtjournal Spezial ”on Thursday night should. So far, however, he has not yet been asked for help.

The 64-year-old meat manufacturer resigned from his offices at FC Schalke on June 30th after several scandals. In 2019, he caused a stir with statements about Africans criticized as racist. In June there was criticism of the working conditions there after a corona outbreak in his meat factory.

In order to be competitive in the long run, Tönnies advised those currently responsible at Schalke to abandon the club structure at least for the professional sector. “Schalke has a structural problem. Schalke is a club and you can see how this club is always busy with itself, “said Tönnies:” That is also my appeal to those responsible. Changes that. “

Unlike other top Bundesliga clubs, which have partially spun off their professional division into commercial companies, Schalke is still just a registered club. The debate about a structural change is a political issue at Schalke. “The name of our club is and will remain the Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 eV football club. It is and will remain a club in the sense of German association law”, is the top priority in the club’s mission statement.

Tönnies in particular had always been committed to tradition. “And by the way, I reproach myself for having dreamed this dream of the eternal association for too long. Schalke has to transform itself into a company and then Schalke will be back, ”he said now. The sporting situation of the bottom of the table without a win for almost a year does not leave him unaffected: “Yes, I am certainly suffering like everyone else.”