“Sportschau Thema”: Tradition in football – burden or opportunity?

It's a time for decisions in the Bundesliga. One has already been made: Schalke 04 will be relegated at the end of the season.

As brutal and in many ways unprecedented as the crash may be, Schalke is not an isolated case. There are already numerous clubs in the lower leagues that once enjoyed great success and still have a broad following.

Prominent examples are Hamburger SV, 1860 Munich and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. In this edition, “Sportschau Thema” asks: “Tradition in football: ballast or opportunity?”

The program discusses what distinguishes traditional clubs, why they often have sporting and financial problems and how football clubs must be managed today in order to be successful.

Jessy Wellmer's guests are Jens Lehmann, former national goalkeeper and current supervisory board member at Hertha BSC, Heribert Bruchhagen, former CEO of Hamburger SV and Eintracht Frankfurt as well as manager at Schalke 04, sports business expert Marco Klewenhagen and Tamara Dwenger.

The “Sportschau Thema” is scheduled to air on Saturday, May 1, 2021 following the DFB Cup semi-final Borussia Dortmund – Holstein Kiel from around 22:45 p.m. on Das Erste.

In 2014, the former HSV supporter founded the Hamburg football club Falke with like-minded people - in protest against the spin-off of the professional division of Hamburger SV into a stock corporation.

In film reports, “Sportschau Thema” is dedicated to Schalke 04, FC Liverpool and Viktoria Berlin. The German champions of 1908 and 1911 have just been promoted to the 3rd division and have big plans for the future.

© Photo: Abigail Keenan, Unsplash