VfB Stuttgart are making changes to their sporting leadership and bringing back three former internationals. In the 2021 financial year, the Swabians will only make a slight minus. All in all, the financial consequences of the Corona crisis are now enormous.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Alexander Wehrle had saved the hottest news until the end of his speech. Bundesliga soccer club VfB Stuttgart is expanding its structures in the area of sports and is bringing back three of its former national players, as the chairman of the board announced at the general meeting on Sunday. Wehrle had previously recorded a slight financial minus in the 2021 financial year and talked about the consequences of the Corona crisis. The loss of sales due to the pandemic is now enormous.
Former world champions Philipp Lahm and Sami Khedira will be his advisors at VfB with immediate effect, 47-year-old Wehrle proudly announced. Former VfB captain Christian Gentner will become head of the licensed players department on January 1, 2023 and thus part of the team around sporting director Sven Mislintat. The Swabians will not bring in an external sports director, Wehrle emphasized again on Sunday.
"After analyzing the season, I informed everyone responsible that we would position ourselves more broadly in sport," said Wehrle. "That we want to enable different perspectives, especially from people who have played professional football themselves. And it's important to me that we involve former VfB players."
He wants to "expand what I learned in the management course with practical experience at VfB, bring in new things, learn new things and successfully use my perspective as an active player for the team," said Gentner, who is currently still for FC Luzern in Switzerland plays. "I am very excited to be able to support VfB in an advisory capacity on sporting issues," said Khedira. The CEO is now going "a new path, one that suits VfB," said Lahm.
Wehrle had previously reported on the slight financial loss that Stuttgart made in 2021. The past financial year brought VfB AG a deficit of 1.2 million euros. Thanks in part to a positive transfer balance, it was significantly lower than in 2020. At that time it was 28.4 million euros.
The corona-related loss of sales of the outsourced professional department of VfB has totaled 89 million since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. In gaming operations alone, for example due to a lack of viewer income, there has been a loss of around 48 million euros since then. "The numbers are still relatively good compared to other traditional clubs," said CEO Alexander Wehrle. At the same time, he emphasized: "We will have to carry the loss of income from the past two seasons with us in the next two or three years - and have to pay it off."
