Opinion: FC Schalke 04 must part ways with Gazprom immediately

P. Köster: cabin sermon
Schalke Our: Gazprom has to go

It was news that relieved many Schalke supporters. In response to the Russian attack on Ukraine, the club announced on Thursday that in future the logo of the Russian energy company Gazprom would no longer be emblazoned on the shirt front, but the simple lettering “Schalke 04”. At first glance, this seemed like determined and consistent action and the immediate termination of the contractual relationship with the controversial main sponsor, which was steered out of the Kremlin, but at second glance it turned out to be a classic instrument of reactive crisis management: We really only do what cannot be avoided at all.

You could see some things in FC Schalke. For example, the Gazprom logo was visible on the homepage next to the message. More strange, however, was the mild tone of the press release, which firstly suggested that the club and sponsor had jointly and amicably agreed on a strategy and secondly gave the impression that only the last few days had suddenly awakened the club’s realization that the sponsor Gazprom might could become a problem.

Gazprom has long been a problem for Schalke 04

But he has been for a long time: a huge problem that the club has persistently downplayed and glossed over since the partnership was announced in the summer of 2007. Getting involved with a corporation whose earnings have been used for many years to finance an autocratic system with an aggressive foreign policy has always been incompatible with FC Schalke’s ethical guidelines. However, this was generously overlooked in the club’s boardroom as long as the lavish payments from Russia kept the financially shaky club on its feet. And it was then that Mathias Warnig, a dodgy former Stasi officer and Putin claqueur, was allowed to join the supervisory board as a co-opted member. In order to stabilize the partnership, former Schalke boss Clemens Tönnies posed grinning with Putin for PR photos and did not want to find any connection between the sponsor and the majority owner even after the violent annexation of Crimea. “For me, there’s zero point zero to complain about. Gazprom is a strong and reliable partner who cares about Schalke’s well-being.”

Spring 2014 at the latest would have been the moment when FC Schalke should have looked around for a new main sponsor. Precisely because the club is in debt in the three-digit million range, it should have reduced its dependence on such a problematic main sponsor years ago and not naively trusted that the Russian ruler would eventually turn out to be an angel of peace. By the way: It is not without a certain comedy that the former Schalke official Peter Peters is asking Uefa to critically review its partnership with Gazprom these days. Such critical statements have not been handed down from his royal blue days.

Gazprom sponsorship is out of the question

In order not to be misunderstood: Everyone knows FC Schalke’s financial worries. The second division team was hit hard by the corona crisis and was on the verge of bankruptcy. And yet, if not eight years ago, at least now the realization has to prevail that Gazprom should never be allowed back on Schalke’s shirt front and that the contract must be terminated as quickly as possible. Anything else, including any other form of sponsorship, is completely out of the question and irreparable for the club’s self-image.

But if the club does not act comprehensively and wants to sit out the current crisis, it will quickly only be seen as being driven by public pressure. Looking for a new main sponsor now and, above all, trusting that new and honest action will also open new doors is the only way with prospects. This affects not only companies, but also the followers. A lot of fans didn’t buy a Schalke jersey in recent years because they didn’t want to walk around with the Gazprom logo on their chest. And many more fans only agreed to the ugly partnership because they realized that otherwise Schalke would have gotten into serious financial difficulties.

Schalke could stand for its values ​​again

That will also be the case if the Gazprom funds are no longer available. According to reports, there are currently nine million. But I’m firmly convinced that there are companies that want to get involved with Schalke and that the supporters want to do their best to keep the financial damage to a minimum. And above all, the club would finally stand for the values ​​that have characterized it since it was founded in 1904: solidarity and togetherness. It is high time that FC Schalke remembered this.

tkr