Rathaus Revolution

[Doughnut Boy Andy]

Last Thursday a mini-revolution took place in the halls of Charlottenburg's Rathaus council offices that deserves a mention for all TeBe's non German speaking fans. At an emergency general meeting, called due to a large number of signatures collected from members, TeBe fans voted in a new era for the club, after club chairman Mario Weinkauf stepped down, presumably to avoid an embarrassing forced exit. With bankruptcy proceedings underway, the club has been effectively taken over by a group of fans, who hope to stabilise the club in the Oberliga and build upon the financial foundations loosely based around the We Save TeBe campaign's collection of smaller local businesses and sponsors.

The chairman and board of the club were accused of turning Tennis Borussia into a laughing stock with the clubs second bankruptcy proceedings in recent years, players not paid and openly lied to over the last six months or more and a constant stream of deadlines and promises in the press that have become a running joke in Berlin football, with reports of a large sponsor, an interested investor or a strategic partner preparing to put pen to paper on day x or week y appearing regularly in the news over the recent months. Both the first men's and women's teams were not only relegated but often slaughtered on the pitch and the men's second team embarrassingly did not manage to complete the season and will have to start next season from the lowest levels of Berlin football where personal friends of mine play for fun. This season has been a disaster for the club.

There were rumours that Mario felt that a lot of the criticism against him was unfair and certainly his image in the fan scene has seemed to take on that of a scapegoat for all the club's problems. When he arrived at the club, some of the fans objected to his appointment here on the rebound from BFC Hühnerhof and claimed that the man was arrogant, not really a Tennis Borussia fan, politically unsuitable and that his leadership style was undemocratic, nontransparent and had stood out in its lack of success. Fans who have just suddenly come to this conclusion years later as soon as the money ran out should definitely be a little ashamed of their seemingly shallow change of attitude and would be well advised to expect a “I told you so” or two from TeBe fans who opposed Weinkauf from the start and from BFC fans who threw out his offer years ago. But as was pointed out at a recent fan meeting, there is probably no other fan scene out there that would have let him get away with this for so long. A fair response to any accusation of anti-Mario prejudice and hopefully, when looking at the last few years, a necessary self-criticism from a fan scene attempting to save the club.

Apparently there was loud applause at the emergency meeting when Mario stood down and he and Willy Kausch moved over to allow a new board try to save the club with a new start. The beers would have flown that evening and I share in many respects the opinion of Lila Kanal user “Firestarter”, who also became more of an occasional visitor to the matches in the last few years as opposed to being a fan and hopes that this new change can bring some stability. But as the hangovers wear off and TeBe fans check out the world cup, the reality looks bleak for our club, no matter how many “born again” believers decide to return. The sad fact remains that the sensible arguments always spoke for the anti-Weinkauf block, just as BFC consequentially decided all those years ago, and almost all TeBe fans knew this at the time, whether they drifted away from the club, left completely or managed to live with the new order. What spoke for Treasure-AG back then was quite simple and the decisive factor, a horrible truth that I had to learn to face myself – Tennis Borussia with its tiny fan base, lack of press interest and lack of success could not realistically survive for many more years of Oberliga based on just a “tradition”, a “dream” and a handful of committed fans. The reason fans did not put up much resistance three years ago was because they felt that had no other choice.

Now, years later, the club will have to survive receivership proceedings, must hope to stay in the Oberliga next season, will struggle to maintain the fan base and we can only keep our fingers crossed and “push our thumbs” that we get back to the pre-Weinkauf square one in two seasons. The theory was that TeBe cannot survive for much longer in the Oberliga – Let us hope that this was wrong because stabilising ourselves in that league is the most that fans can expect in the next few seasons.

[Doughnut Boy Andy]

I have been asked per mail to write a follow up on the new situation, a request that has ironically appeared also in the German section of the forum on many occasions too. The problem is that there seems to be very little to say. Just a few points:

1) The Oberliga season starts at the beginning of August and TeBe are registered to play in that league once more. If all goes to plan the club will not have to start from the lower lower lower leagues - just from the lower lower league i.e. Division 5 (in that it would be necessary to be promoted 4 times to play in the Bundesliga 1).

2) The receivership proceedings concerning bankruptcy started within the time allocated to last season, meaning that TeBe will automatically be relegated from the Regional division last year and not from the Oberliga this year, which would of course be a complete disaster. The accountants and lawyers surrounding the "new regime" are confident that the mess can be sorted out as soon as possible.

3) This does not mean that all is good however. TeBe still have no major backer, no big time business man with a soft spot to bail us out and a reputation in the media that makes a contract with the club seem as honest and reliable as Uri Geller's spoon-bending trick.

4) My knowledge of the financial and legal framework of running insolvency procedures concerning German lower league football clubs is limited but the club needs cash so that it can sign contracts and meet running costs in a form that does not automatically get moved to paying the debts of the previous (mis)management period. An account has been set up so that individuals can donate towards the running of the club this season (i.e. not to fill debt holes). The details I will post at the end.

5) It seems that individuals and businesses have signed debt guarantees to a value of 85,000 so that the club can start to sign players and organise for the next season. A realistic estimate of what is needed lies at over 150,000 however so more money is needed. For 500 Euros small business and individuals can join the TeBe business club - this gives them 2 season tickets, 4 VIP room tickets, newsletters, a possibility of winning advertising space, a mention in various locations as benefactor and the chance to network with other sponsors, benefactors and businesses. Anyone interested should contact the We Save TeBe office. If English information is required I would be very happy to help with any difficulties.

So TeBe is still on the rocks, shaken but not completely stirred thanks to the work of some very dedicated fans. Our thanks I am sure to them. If you think you know any local businesses or individuals interested in sponsoring the team, advertising at matches or joining the business club then please spread the word and get in touch.

Name: Bernd Sievers TeBe
Bank: Berliner Volksbank AG
Bank Code: 100 900 00
Account Nr: 8707441004
Reason: Spielbetrieb 1. Männer 2010/2011
IBAN: DE18 1009 0000 8707 4410 04
BIC: BEVODEBB

Thanks, Andy

[Norbert]

I don´t have the overlook concerning the current financial situation, but as far as I know it´s not that bad anymore. That does not mean that TeBe is not anymore in deep financial trouble! But they built up a "casting-squad" and managed to play in the fifth tier (which is the Oberliga Nordost-Nord).

Today in the evening it´s kick off at half past seven (CET) against Brandenburg Süd (which gained last season a very good third place in the league) and we are all quite curious how a completely new TeBe squad will start into the new season. It is a team full of youngsters and just a few members of the team have Oberliga-experience.