Sport Dirk Zingler
“If it says ‘Shit DFL’, that’s the wrong addressee,” says the Union President
As of: 12:33 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
Dirk Zingler has been president of 1. FC Union Berlin since 2004
Source: dpa/Matthias Koch
1. FC Union recently voted against the DFL’s investor deal. However, the Bundesliga club is fundamentally not against investors. President Zingler is now reaffirming this – and appealing to the fans. The Union boss has announced changes to the squad for the second half of the season.
He has been an independent entrepreneur since 1995 and has been president of 1. FC Union Berlin since 2004 – the club that, after four years in which things have always gone up since being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2019, is experiencing a sporting crisis in the first half of the current season.
Now that the year is coming to an end, Dirk Zingler, the boss of the first division club, has appealed to fans not to use the last successful Bundesliga years as a benchmark. “But maybe in ten years we can talk and set new goals when we have a new old forestry company, when we come back from this phase of building and moving to another stadium,” said the 59-year-old and made it clear: “Staying in the league, 40 points is our goal every year and let’s be happy about how great the last few years have been.”
After successful years, the Köpenickers are currently experiencing a difficult phase: in the Champions League they were eliminated in the group phase with no chance, and in the Bundesliga they were just above the relegation places after a long series of defeats. “We agree that we have overperformed in terms of sport in relation to our resources and in relation to our structure. “We didn’t always outplay our opponents in a playful way, we fought them to death,” said Zingler.
“We will experience changes”
Zingler cannot give any real reasons for the failure this season. He rejected the accusation of having signed players in the summer who did not fit the club. “We haven’t changed anything, nothing. We brought in great guys who play a great role in the dressing room and who play a great role on the pitch. None of the newcomers and neither Urs Fischer nor Oliver Ruhnert are to blame for the fact that we have lost our self-evidence,” the President continued.
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Zingler described the road back to a top team as long. “We will see changes in the squad. We will have to reposition ourselves, we will have to start again,” announced the Brandenburg native. “We have many topics that we have not pursued as intensively as we should have in recent years for good reasons,” added Zingler, citing the integration of youth players as an example.
There hasn’t been much reason to celebrate for 1. FC Union so far in the first half of the season: here the players are celebrating a goal in a 2-0 win against 1. FC Köln shortly before Christmas
Quelle: Getty Images/Boris Streubel
In the conversation that appeared on the club’s homepage, Zingler defended the move to the Olympic Stadium for the Champions League games: “We ended up having over 210,000 spectators and we gained a lot of new sponsorship contacts. We have a lot on the positive side, but we have also felt pain. Because each of us would have liked to experience these games in the An der Alten Försterei stadium,” said Zingler: “In the end, I think we made the right decision.”
The Union Stadium only offers space for around 22,000 visitors. Around 74,000 football fans were able to watch the games per game in the venue of local rivals Hertha BSC.
Zingler spoke of a difficult decision. “I think the vast majority consider the decision for the Olympic Stadium to be the right one,” said the 59-year-old and particularly raved about the atmosphere in the 2-3 win against Real Madrid. “Everyone who was there will remember this evening. This half-time, the course of the game and being able to share this – that’s part of a great day in the history of our club.”
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In the conversation, the Union boss once again appeared open to investors in German professional football – under one condition. “We as a Union are not fundamentally against investors for ideological reasons, because we ourselves are a club that has been investing in all of its areas with outside capital for 20 years. 1. FC Union Berlin is a story of courageous investors,” said the 59-year-old. But: The deal has to be right. And in the Köpenickers’ opinion, the plan for an investor to join the German Football League (DFL) didn’t do that.
In mid-December, Union was not one of the 24 first and second division clubs that had given their consent. “We voted against this type of investor deal because we don’t think it’s good for the league,” said Zingler. “Because we believe that we will be making a decision over a period of 20 years that we cannot yet foresee.” He is “clearly against investors who are purely interested in returns. I am against multi-club ownership. I am against investors who actually change our football. Above all, football must be “non-profit.”
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However, the Union President was unable to understand the direction of the fan anger over the decision. “I would once again appeal to this term “shitty DFL” in the protests. It’s unclear again because the DFL employees didn’t decide, nor did Mr. Lenz and Mr. Merkel as managing directors. The 24 clubs decided. So if it says “Shit DFL”, that’s once again the wrong addressee,” said Zingler.
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