Sports power struggle at VfB
Chaos in Stuttgart – The presidium is falling apart, the board is sounding the alarm
Status: 15.03.2024 | Reading time: 2 minutes
President Claus Vogt is the focus of the power struggle at VfB Stuttgart
Source: dpa/David Inderlied
The unrest in the leadership of VfB Stuttgart is becoming increasingly violent. In a statement, the colleagues on the executive committee moved away from the club’s chairman, Claus Vogt. The board, in turn, reacts with concern. Investor Porsche plays a central role.
The quarrels in the leadership of VfB Stuttgart continue. After the statement by President Claus Vogt, who was voted out as head of the supervisory board, and the association’s advisory board, vice president Rainer Adrion and executive board member Christian Riethmüller also spoke out in a separate statement on Friday.
And kept their distance from the 54-year-old. They explained that they could not have agreed to Thursday’s explosive statement “in this form”. Accordingly, they had not signed it either.
A good two hours later, the next announcement followed, this time from the board of directors of the Bundesliga football club. “The current situation at the club’s political level is a particular burden for the entire club at practically all levels and comes at an inopportune time,” it said.
Alexander Wehrle calls for solidarity
Chairman Alexander Wehrle and his board colleagues called for “everyone to work closely together” and want to work “actively with all committees in a compact working group to formally clarify existing problems regarding future-oriented structural issues, especially regarding the chairmanship of the supervisory board.”
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Adrion and Riethmüller had previously regretted the way the meeting last Tuesday, at which Vogt was voted out as chairman of the supervisory board and replaced by Tanja Gönner. “The spin-off promise that the president of the eV is also chairman of the supervisory board has been on the table since 2017 and, in our opinion, should not be changed in the future without involving the members,” explained Adrion and Riethmüller.
The new investor Porsche “linked the concrete expectation in the investment negotiations” that Vogt would give up the chairmanship of the supervisory board, it was said. “After the President accepted this in writing, the other members of the Presidium and the majority of the Supervisory Board agreed to it. Our hope was that we would find a common solution for the benefit of the club and its members.”
Claus Vogt sees deselection as legally questionable
According to Adrion and Riethmüller, the members are “always directly involved in the decision-making of the association”. The influence of the parent club on the AG is always guaranteed.
Vogt and the club’s advisory board had described the entrepreneur’s deselection as “legally questionable”, raised the question of whether VfB “really still belongs to its members” and expressed doubts as to whether this development would result in Stuttgart’s 50+1 ratio, which is fundamental to German football. rule is still adhered to. It prevents a donor from getting the majority of votes and thus the last word in a club.
