The HSV cannot hope for any state guarantee
View of the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg: The roof also needs to be renovated, as well as technical areas
Source: Christian Charisius/dpa/archive image
Hamburg parties see no chance that the state is responsible for a possible default in the stadium renovation. Now the board of directors Wüstefeld has to re-explain his concept in the citizenship.
NAfter the allegations against the current board member Thomas Wüstefeld and above all after the financial management in recent years, the loss of confidence in Hamburger SV is apparently so great that the second division football team cannot count on a guarantee from the city in the urgent question of stadium renovation. This was reported by the “Hamburger Abendblatt”.
“In the current situation, I think a guarantee is out of the question,” said the budgetary spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, Thilo Kleibauer, the newspaper. His SPD colleague Milan Pein also said: “For image reasons alone, HSV would do well to try to find a solution in the free economy.” perform badly, but you can’t be opaque when you ask the city for money, #HSV.”
The city of Hamburg bought the property on which the Volkspark Stadium stands from HSV two years ago for 23.5 million euros. The sale was completed on the condition that the club use the money for the more than €20 million refurbishment of the stadium, which will host the 2024 European Football Championship.
In fact, however, HSV put the millions into ongoing business operations, which were very loss-making during the corona pandemic, and now has to finance the stadium renovation from other sources. CFO Wüstefeld presented HSV main sponsor HanseMerkur as a lender, but needed a guarantor for the negotiated 13 million euro loan.
All factions of the Hamburg Parliament are currently rejecting the city taking on this role, as Wüstefeld had hoped. A main reason for this is the annoyance in large parts of politics about HSV’s handling of the income from the sale of stadium land. “HSV has to create transparency,” said Dennis Paustian-Döscher, the budget spokesman for the Greens.
Thomas Wüstefeld, CEO of Hamburger SV, has to present his ideas
Quelle: pa/dpa/Christian Charisius
CFO Wüstefeld will be heard this Thursday in the budget committee of the citizenship. There, the 53-year-old should also explain what HSV used the 23.5 million euros from the city for. Massive allegations were recently made against Wüstefeld in connection with his work as a medical entrepreneur. He himself rejects this as a “campaign”.
Wüstefeld himself caused a surprise last week when he presented plans for a sports campus with additional buildings – apparently not in agreement with large parts of the club. The investment project should amount to 200 million euros. Finance Senator Andreas Dressel (SPD) commented laconically on this move: “Anyone who wants to fly to the stars must first build a ground station.” Talks are also currently underway with shareholder Klaus-Michael Kühne, but they are being conducted by the president of the entire club, an ex-national player Marcell Jansen. Kühne rejects Wüstefeld as a board member and is pushing for a change.
