If you’ve been blissfully ignorant of Bundesliga comings and goings over the Winter break, you may have missed the news that Ralf Rangnick resigned as coach. This came as a bit of a shock as Rangnick is generally viewed as a fine coach who was doing a good job in developing Hoffenheim from a village team to a quality Bundesliga outfit.
Rangnick was hired in 2006 to coach Hoffenheim while they were still hanging out in the 3rd division. Rangnick had kicked around at VfB Stuttgart, Hannover 96, and Schalke 04 with varying degrees of success. He was even considered by Joachim Löw to be an assistant on the German national team. Upon signing on with Hoffenheim, they quickly gained promotion to the 2nd division and just as quickly made the climb to the Bundesliga. This all happened much more quickly than even the most optimistic Hoffenheim supporter could believe. This team from a city of 3,200 suddenly had a team playing at the top level of one of the world’s best football leagues.
Of course none of this would have happened without the sizable wallet of SAP AG owner, and former Hoffenheim youth player, Dietmar Hopp. Like so many other billionaires, Hopp decided he was going to buy himself a soccer team. However, two things prevented Hopp from taking over Hoffenheim and making it his own little vanity project as so many other billionaires have done.
First and foremost is the 50+1 rule. This rule dictates that the club must have a majority ownership of the club itself. In other words, the most Mr. Hopp would ever be able to own of his childhood club is 49.99999999999%. Note that this doesn’t mean that he cannot personally invest more than 49.99% of the funds that the club has. Rather, he cannot take over the clubs daily operations and management of the team.
The second reason is that he wants to make Hoffenheim a financially viable operation. As of today, Hoffenheim’s entire rise can be attributed to Mr. Hopp’s cash infusion into the club (including investing in their €60 million stadium). For while he may be allowed to only own less than half of the team, there is no such restriction on how much money he can give to the club. But he knows that at some point he or his heirs may not have the ability to continue pumping money into 1899 Hoffenheim. So his entire philosophy has been to find young talent, develop them, and ultimately have them play in the Bundesliga. Hoffenheim would rather currently sell players in the transfer market rather than buy them.
Hopp has claimed that the club’s former director of sport Jan Schindelmeiser was far too loose with the funds. Even with the sale of Luis Gustavo, he claims that Hoffenheim will lose €7 million this season. He wants to keep player salaries to a minimum.
And this leads to the reason of why Ralf Rangnick was fired. All reports indicate that the board and Dietmar Hopp were satisfied with his coaching. However, Rangnick kept pushing for the board to purchase players in order to improve his roster. So long as Hopp is funding the operation and so long as Hoffenheim are losing money, this was not going to happen.
Furthermore, Rangnick and Hopp clashed about the potential sale of midfielder Luis Gustavo to Bayern. While Rangnick was not inherently against the move, he was adamant that it should happen after the season and not at the winter break. Hopp saw differently and it is reported that he dealt directly with Bayern management to seal the €15 million transfer deal.
Seeing as there was an ideological rift between himself and Dietmar Hopp, Ralf Rangnick resigned his post. Reports indicate that the two still have a very amicable relationship and it is quite unlike most knee-jerk firings in the Bundesliga. This one had to do with long term philosophy and not with short term performance.
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As a post script, assistant coach Marco Pezzaiuoli was promoted to be coach of Hoffenheim. It has also been reported that the DFB is investigating the negotiations between Hoffenheim and Bayern primarily to see if Mr. Hopp used undue influence to force the transfer (ie, violating the 50+1 rule). As part of the Gustavo transfer, Davad Alaba is being loaned from Bayern to Hoffenheim until June 30, 2013.
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Good summary of the happenings at Hoffenheim. But if I am not mistaken, Alabas first name is David and he is loaned until the end of the season only.
Thanks. You are correct in spotting the typo on David’s name. I was unsure of how long the transfer was for so I referred to Transfermarkt.de which is a reliable (but not official) source.
http://transfermarkt.de/de/david-alaba/profil/spieler_59016.html
It’s a bit tough to find, but the loan date they have listed is right under the top section with the Hoffenheim logo.
Speedy – you’re right. I misread the transfermarkt.de information. David Alaba’s transfer ends this summer; his contract with Bayern Munich ends on June 30, 2013.
It’s laudable for the Hopp to want the Hoff to be a financially-viable concern, but with their incredibly small fan base & catchment area, is this really possible to do & stay in the 1.BL? Has a team from a smaller town ever stayed up more than a year or two? There was Ulm & Unterhaching, but they both sank in short order. It seems they won’t have much room to make mistakes so far as selling on players. One bad year w/no real income could be disastrous for them.
Teams like Lyon & Porto have shown you can keep a team running in this manner, but of course they aren’t based in a tiny backwater (all due respect, etc. & so on.)