TAfter the bitter cup failure of FSV Mainz 05 against VfL Bochum, rainer Jan-Moritz Lichte said goodbye to a Christmas party full of uncertainty, and CEO Stefan Hofmann had finally buried the hope of a peaceful holiday. “It won’t be a normal Christmas. We’ll put our heads together and talk a lot on the phone. Then we decide, ”Hofmann announced quick answers to the pressing questions about a new head of sport and the future of Lichte.
The cup defeat against the second division soccer club from Bochum with a 3-0 penalty on penalties increased the frustration throughout the club and the pressure to act. “It is now very important that clear decisions are made,” said Lichte. First, a successor to sports director Rouven Schröder, whose contract was terminated on Tuesday, must be installed quickly. “After that, the club has to decide whether the cooperation with me has a promising future,” said Lichte. “I have to wait.”
Not much speaks for the 40-year-old. In the Bundesliga, he only scored six points with the penultimate, and now the cup knockout followed. The FSV gambled away a 2-0 lead in regular time on Wednesday evening with goals from Jean-Paul Boëtius (7th minute) and Danny Latza (55th) and was able to win a 25-minute excess after the red card for extra time Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Riemann not use. Adam Szalai, Kevin Stöger and Jean-Philippe Mateta then failed from the point.
“That was a symbol of what we’ve been experiencing for weeks. I am very, very disappointed, “said Lichte and stated soberly:” What we bring to the field as a team is not enough. “Defender Alexander Hack assessed the situation as critically:” If we don’t want to, we can’t win any games . We now have a few days to think about it. “
There is not much time to remedy the deficits. The Bundesliga continues on January 3rd – of all places, with the industry leader FC Bayern Munich. Hofmann is therefore hoping for a quick acceptance from Christian Heidel, the absolute preferred candidate for the post of sports director. “I’ll talk to him on the phone more often over Christmas. He now has to make the fundamental commitment of what I assume and what I hope, ”said the Mainz boss.
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Heidel knows the club very well, having turned the former second division club into a stable Bundesliga club in his 24-year tenure as manager. Now the 57-year-old, who left Mainz in the summer of 2016 for FC Schalke 04, should avert the threat of falling into the second division.
“We have been very unstable in terms of sport for a year and a half and have to live with the fact that many fans turn away. The fact that we think about how we can counteract this and which people have the necessary expertise – and then come up with the name Christian Heidel – is understandable, ”said Hofmann. Now all that’s missing is the promise of the new bearer of hope.
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