Behind the Scenes at TSG Hoffenheim: The Jens Rasiejewski Saga & Club Turmoil

Will there be an out-of-court agreement between Jens Rasiejewski and TSG Hoffenheim? Exciting: There is also a bit of internal club scheming behind the process.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and former academy boss Jens Rasiejewski are in legal negotiations. IMAGO/Eibner

At the beginning of the year there was an open conflict brewing behind the scenes, little of which was made public. On one side there was sports director Alexander Rosen, who was promoted to managing director last summer, and his confidant Bastian Huber, the technical director. On the other hand, among others, the other two managing directors Prof. Dr. Jan Mayer and Denni Strich. A rift was just averted, but according to reports the situation continues to simmer in the background with an open outcome.

Rasiejewski fell out of favor with Hopp?

In any case, in December, after months of internal club whispers, Rasiejewski was released. The former short-term head coach of VfL Bochum, who was brought in as academy director in June 2021, was considered a Rosen confidant. But since the summer of 2023 at the latest, there have been persistent rumors that he had fallen out of favor with club patron Dietmar Hopp. However, no one apparently wanted to implement the exemption before it was announced in December 2023.

The dispute over the 49-year-old is just one aspect of the larger and apparently quite fragile structure at the top level of TSG. In filling the position with Frank Kramer, former youth director Dirk Mack, who is no longer an employee of the club, but rather a company through which Hopp’s foreign activities at Academico de Viseu in Portugal and Barra Futebol Clube in Brazil are handled, has a say in the matter could be seen as an affront to sports director Rosen.

Out-of-court settlement in sight

In any case, Rasiejewski, whose contract runs until the summer of 2024, is taking legal action against the exemption before the Mannheim Labor Court (ArbG), and he is also suing for the termination of his contract. So on a working paper without a fixed end. One argument in his favor could be that he was already employed as a coach in the TSG youth ranks between 2011 and 2015. However, the TSG and Rasiejewski now seem to want to reach an agreement out of court. The ArbG announced that the conciliation date announced for March 14th was canceled “as the parties agreed at short notice that they were in out-of-court negotiations.” So far, however, nothing has been known about a separation, which suggests that negotiations are still ongoing.

2024-03-25 19:59:28
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