Borussia Dortmund
Quake at BVB: club boss Watzke announces withdrawal
Resigns as BVB managing director: Hans-Joachim Watzke. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
An era is coming to an end at BVB. After 20 years, Hans-Joachim Watzke will step down as managing director in autumn 2025. This means that the traditional club is facing a major upheaval.
He didn’t fight back tears, but he seemed visibly moved. Hans-Joachim is about to say goodbye to Borussia Dortmund Watzke heavy – and causes an earthquake at the Revierclub. The 64-year-old surprisingly announced his retirement from management of the Bundesliga soccer club in autumn 2025. It is also planned that he will hand over overall sporting responsibility by June 30, 2024. This marks the end of a 20-year era at the Revierclub.
“It was always important to me that it would be a self-determined departure. That’s been a long time. But it’s still too early for a swan song,” said Watzke, commenting on his decision, which he said came to fruition over the Christmas period.
Despite all the pride in the great successes during his time in office, Watzke was apparently bothered by the growing criticism of his administration in recent months. “It’s irritating that your work is only evaluated based on whether you’re fourth or fifth. Few people can imagine the pressure you’re under,” he confessed. The narrow miss of the championship last summer and the team’s recent fall to fifth place may have had a significant influence on his decision: “I’ve increasingly had the impression that now the point has come to say that enough is enough. “
Future open
Who will lead the traditional club in the future remains unclear for the time being. “It was important to me to announce this early on because then we have enough time to make the transition,” said Watzke. He now wants to concentrate on strategy and the transition in the last year of his term in office. “The Presidential Committee asked me to hold discussions, develop ideas and present a concept regarding overall responsibility. I agreed to that.” He did not rule out an internal solution: “We have enough human resources and are under no pressure.”
Watzke made great contributions to BVB. When the club’s former treasurer was appointed managing director in February 2005, Borussia was threatened with extinction. Together with President Reinhard Rauball and financial director Thomas Treß, Watzke saved the heavily indebted club from bankruptcy. “We had to run Borussia Dortmund under creditor administration for 19 months,” Watzke recalled on Monday at the training camp in Marbella, recalling what were probably the most difficult hours in the club’s history.
The subsequent rise to become the second force in German football behind record champions FC Bayern at times had fairytale characteristics. During his term of office there were two championships (2011, 2012), three cup victories (2012, 2017, 2021) and a place in the Champions League final in 2013. “We didn’t do everything wrong and achieved a lot of successes,” commented Watzke.
Exit already postponed
His contract as CEO of BVB was extended until 2025 in May 2021. At that time, Watzke had postponed his planned exit again due to the corona pandemic and its effects. “Corona cost us 150 million euros. We looked into the abyss for the second time,” said Watzke. It is unclear whether he will now take on another position at BVB and who will be his successor.
In the German Football League, Watzke heads the supervisory board and is spokesman for the executive committee. Since the departure of the former DFL managing director Christian Seifert, the BVB boss has been the defining face of the league. For German football, he has also sat on the executive committee of the European Football Union as Vice President of the German Football Association since April 2023. His mandate in UEFA also ends in 2025.
Watzke is still involved in the current plan to strengthen the Dortmund squad in the winter transfer period and thus send a signal for a successful race towards the Champions League places. As in the efforts to bring back Jadon Sancho, who was out of favor at Manchester United, and loan him out for six months.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. We want to bring him over, but we’re not ready to announce results yet,” said Watzke. He did not provide any further details about the return campaign: “We do not announce any water level reports. The problem is no longer ours, we are in good communication with Manchester United.”