The longtime club boss Martin Kind was dismissed as managing director of the professional football association of Hannover 96 on Wednesday evening. This was announced by the board of the parent association Hannover 96 e.V. in a short message. The 78-year-old was recalled “with immediate effect for important reasons. The committees will decide on the new appointment of the management in a timely manner.
Kind is the majority shareholder of the professional football operation in the second division football team. However, in order to comply with the so-called 50 1 rule of the German Football League, the parent club decides on the filling of the managing director posts. The 50 1 rule is intended to limit the influence of external investors. According to this, the majority of votes must always remain with the registered club if it spins off its professional football department into a corporation.
According to information from "Bild", after the many wrong decisions made by Kind in recent years, those responsible for the registered club wanted a say in filling important positions such as sports director and coach. The patron is said to have rejected this. Club President Sebastian Kramer told the "Neue Presse" about Kind's dismissal: "He took note of it without comment." Kramer wanted to leave it at that because "it is a pending case".
Kind was elected president of Hannover 96 in 1997 and has since steered the club with only a brief hiatus, creating this juxtaposition of multiple societies himself. He retired as president of the parent club in 2019 to focus solely on professional football at 96.
At the general meeting, however, only child opponents were elected to the supervisory board, which then set up a child-critical executive committee. The conflict between the capital and the club side that has been smoldering since then goes back to this.
