The Monday Bulletin: Helpless Köln, Hannover power struggles and RB Leipzig say goodbye to Forsberg
Hello and welcome to the eleventh edition of the Gegenpressing Monday Bulletin. This newsletter hopes to provide a vital source of information for any serious Bundesliga fan, as we round up some of the most intriguing aspects of the matchday thanks to snippets of insight from our writers. Let us know what you think of the format and the talking points in the comments section below.
This weekend’s results
Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-2 Werder Bremen
Mainz 0-1 Heidenheim
Darmstadt 0-1 Wolfsburg
Bochum 3-0 Union Berlin
Augsburg 1-1 Borussia Dortmund
RB Leipzig 3-1 Hoffenheim
Freiburg 2-0 FC Köln
Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Eintracht Frankfurt
Bayern Munich 3-0 Stuttgart
Defeat to Freiburg rounds off a difficult start to the season for helpless Köln
Freiburg’s win over FC Köln on Saturday was by a margin of two goals that could have easily been six or seven. Over the course of the match Christian Streich’s side dominated possession and goal scoring chances, firing no less than 23 shots towards Marvin Schwabe in goals and even hitting the post at one point. A 2-0 defeat away to Freiburg may not be the worst result on paper, but the performance was a damning indictment of the trouble the Billy Goats find themselves in this season. Steffen Baumgart put on a brave face at half time, praising his side’s commitment and intensity throughout the match, but Köln will need a lot more than a bit of graft to get themselves out of this mess. Saturday’s defeat was the club’s ninth of the league season, pointing to a run of form that has seen Baumgart’s side spend just four out of the 15 match days outside the bottom three and pick up just nine points in their last 10 games. Only three clubs have a poorer return in that period of time, but worryingly for Köln fans, two of them are clubs that are likely to start ticking upwards in the second half of the season in Mainz and Union Berlin. And if the capital side were to beat them in Köpenick on Wednesday in their final league clash of 2023, there’s a very good chance that Baumgart’s team will finish the year in 16th place, three points off safety. The winter break will be a welcome respite from the torment of a difficult Hinrunde, but Effzeh will have to come up with better tactical solutions to their problems if they’re going to prove to be more than mere cannon fodder in the second half of the season. [Stefan Bienkowski]
RB Leipzig lose club legend Emil Forsberg
It was a perfect goodbye by Emil Forsberg. Ahead of the game against Hoffenheim on Saturday, news broke that Forsberg would leave the club in the winter and join Leipzig’s Major League Soccer sister side, the New York Red Bulls. Starting the game on the bench, the crowd rose in applause when Forsberg came on with the score 1-1 in the 66th minute. “Jetzt geht’s los” (now we are getting started) was the chant from the stands as Forsberg came on, and just four minutes later, the crowd erupted when the Swede scored what turned out to be the winner. With the final whistle, both Leipzig and the New York Red Bulls made the transfer official, securing a perfect goodbye for their club legend. “I can’t believe it,” Forsberg said after the game to Sky when asked about his fairytale ending in Leipzig. “Those are the moments one dreams about.” Calling Forsberg a club legend would be an understatement. The now 32-year-old Swede joined the club nine years ago when Leipzig were still playing in the 2. Bundesliga. Scoring 71 goals and 69 assists in 324 games, Forsberg leaves a Leipzig side that has won two DFB Pokals during his time with the club and is now firmly established in Germany’s top four. “Everything that I wanted to happen, happened,” Forsberg said after the game. Some questions, however, remain. The game against Hoffenheim indicated that Forsberg is still a valuable contributor at this level, plus his leadership role will leave a big hole in Leipzig’s squad. But part of this can be explained by Red Bull’s strategic thinking. The company wants more top talents from its clubs in Brazil and the United States to Leipzig. Forsberg, with his experience, is headed to New York to help and, after his two years in MLS, is expected to return in a different role to Leipzig. Still, replacing Forsberg will be difficult as sporting director Rouven Schröder is now tasked to sign a new attacking player in January. [Manu Veth]
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Hannover 96 unlikely to challenge DFL investor vote
Has Martin Kind voted for the DFL investor deal, and could that vote jeopardise the deal? Last week, the league voted to open negotiations with a potential investor to sell 8.3% of a yet-to-be-founded company that will house the international media rights. To open negotiations, the Deutsche Fußball Liga, which governs the Bundesliga, and 2. Bundesliga needed a two-thirds majority to receive a mandate for negotiations (for more on this, check out last week’s bonus show). After an earlier vote in May failed, the league received a narrow two-thirds majority, with 24 clubs voting yes, two clubs abstaining, and 10 clubs voting against the deal. Based on the public statements by other clubs, the ten clubs that voted against the deal were Kaiserslautern, Magdeburg, Hertha Berlin, Braunschweig, Nürnberg, Fortuna Düsseldorf, St. Pauli, Union Berlin, Köln, Freiburg and Kaiserslautern. Not among the no vote: Hannover 96. That, however, is a problem as the membership club, the Hannover 96 e.V., had directed the chairman of the Hannover 96 GmbH & Co. KGaA Martin Kind, at the club’s annual general meeting to vote against the deal. The relationship between Kind and the membership club at the core of Hannover 96 has been complicated for years. The GmbH & Co. KGaA operates the football operations, and Kind has tried to claim an exception from the 50+1 rule based on 20+ years of investments. That has been turned down by the DFL in the past as Kind briefly left the club at one point, which has led to a complicated power struggle at the club. Either way, Kind did represent the club at the vote and, based on the public statements by other clubs, represented the decisive yes vote going against the club directive. As a result, Hannover 96 President Sebastian Kramer has asked the DFL to overturn the result. That request is likely to go nowhere even if Kind has voted against the club directive. “I think it is impossible that the vote can be overturned,” Lars Leuschner, who is a lawyer specializing in German club law, said to Kicker last week. “Even if Kind voted against his club’s directive, his vote remains legally binding.” Kind was the authorized representative (or Prokurist) of the club, and any decision by the CEO is, therefore, legally binding. A good comparison would be if a company authorized an employee to buy a red car, but the employee returned with a blue car. Because the person was authorized to buy the car, the company cannot return the vehicle. What the company, however, can do is fire the employee. Indeed, Hannover 96 President Kramer is now exploring legal options to remove Kind as the CEO of the company that operates the day-to-day football operations. Whether that process will be successful remains to be seen and will certainly add another chapter to Hannover’s complicated club history. [Manu Veth]