Maximilian Kothny is 25 years old. A few years ago he was still selling laptops in a computer shop. He started as an intern at Türkgücü Munich, after which he was responsible for ticketing and social media. Almost at the beginning of the pandemic, the sports management student was appointed managing director, and suddenly he was allowed to juggle millions of euros, he hired and fired dozens of players. Just 23 months later, Kothny had to go to the district court and apply for the opening of insolvency proceedings.
The reason: President, patron and shareholder Hasan Kivran no longer wants to pay and is obviously fed up with this project, which only causes trouble. Kothny will continue to represent the Munich third division club, which now operates under the file number 1513 IN 198/22; the future is completely open.
There is no one who represents the steep rise and crashing fall of this football construct better than the young career changer. For the time being, however, Kothny will say nothing more, which, according to the press release, applies to all club officials. On Monday, an insolvency administrator took over the fortunes of the association. This will decide whether and how the football club will continue.
The application is already sufficient for the club to be deducted nine points according to the DFB statutes; the deduction is in principle a formality, but it can be delayed by a few weeks due to possible objections. This means that Türkgücü Munich has only twelve points left and is a distant bottom of the table. The team lost 1-0 to the former bottom team TSV Havelse last Saturday. Regardless of the financial situation, staying in professional football seems uncertain anyway.
Kothny’s press release contains a clear blame towards Kivran
The insolvency administrator, the Munich lawyer Max Liebig, who handled Alfons Schuhbeck’s insolvency last fall, will now draw up a plan to pre-finance the insolvency money. On Monday, Liebig already held the first talks with representatives of Türkgücü GmbH, he should have already taken a first look at the list of creditors and noticed that it is quite long. After an initial inventory, Liebig will then manage the actual insolvency.
The most important question for Türkgücü will initially be whether the game can continue. The players and full-time employees can continue to be paid by the Federal Employment Agency (BfA) for three months, albeit not in full.
According to SZ information, the January salaries had not arrived by Monday afternoon. However, it cannot be ruled out that Kenan Kivran, Hasan Kivran’s brother and head of finance at Türkgücü, still transferred the salaries; in the past they sometimes arrived at Türkgücü slightly late. In any case, the BfA cannot pay out the salary retrospectively. The players had no training on Monday. However, the club’s spokesman had no information that players had left or planned to leave Türkgücü at the end of the January 31 transfer window.
There is no main sponsor, no real estate and no significant viewer income
Some formulations in Türkgücü’s press release make you sit up and take notice. They suggest that the club and President Hasan Kivran will go their separate ways from now on. “After initially promised shareholder funds did not flow, the step of filing for the opening of insolvency proceedings became unavoidable,” it says. According to SZ information, there was a last meeting between Kothny and the main shareholder Kivran last Thursday.
There was little hope that Kivran would change his mind after he had wanted to sell his shares for the past year. The clear blame in the direction of Kivran, who has been the de facto sole determinant since he joined Türkgücü as president in 2015, can only mean one thing: the future of Türkgücü Munich is still open at the moment, but it is a future without Hasan Kivran.
“Up until the day the application was submitted, we tried everything in our power to avert this step,” Kothny continues, “so it is now important not to see the situation as the end, but as an opportunity. We now have the opportunity to to realign ourselves without burdens from the past and with the help of possible new, strong sponsors.” However, it seems unlikely that this coming to terms with the very recent past will be sufficient to find sponsors immediately: There is no main sponsor, the club does not have any real estate and has no significant income from spectators.
The third division derby at home against 1860 Munich on February 16 alone could generate decent income. “With a long-term, stable and economically sustainable plan, staying or returning to professional football in the event of relegation would not be ruled out,” it continues. There hasn’t been a long-term plan so far, and so this sentence can only mean: we’d like to try again without Hasan Kivran. And hope to get another chance.