Rauball contra Zwanziger and what on Earth is a Kreisliga?

This is not the “Offi­cial” Kreis­liga Logo.

Ham­burg – League Boss Rein­hard Rauball is dis­tanc­ing him­self from DFB Boss Theo Zwanziger in the fight on pos­si­ble mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion for the Ama­teur Clubs and also crit­i­cized the can­cel­la­tion of the Kreis­li­gaspielt­ages on 1 March. “I can­not agree with this. I respect the author­ity of those that have to make this deci­sion, but I per­son­ally can­not under­stand it” Rauball told “kicker” magazine.

Rauball’s crit­i­cism is based on the can­cel­la­tion of the first match day in the Kreisen (Areas) Gelsenkirchen, Unna, Glad­beck und Kirch­hellen on 1 March to Protest against the Bundesliga-Sunday after­noon match. He also had some strong words in the direc­tion of Zwanziger, who had rec­om­mended mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion for the Ama­teur teams that are look­ing at los­ing rev­enue and Fans if a Bun­desliga game is played at the same time they are sched­uled to take the field. In a call between the two sides, Rauball reit­er­ated that the DFL “would not par­tic­i­pate in this com­pen­sa­tion pack­age”. Rauball also stated that DFB-Generalsekretär (Gen­eral Sec­re­tary) Wolf­gang Niers­bach had his doubts about being able to make a com­pen­sa­tion pack­age work. Accord­ing to Rauball, Niers­bach is said to “have no idea how that is sup­posed to work”. As long as the Ama­teur teams do not “strike” Rauball is will­ing to ask the Bun­desliga teams to stage ben­e­fit games to help the Kreis­liga* teams.

*In case you are won­der­ing where the Kreis­liga ranks, it is approx­i­mately the 9th or 10th Divi­sion (depend­ing on the State) of Ger­man Soc­cer Struc­ture and is com­prised of so called Hobby Kicker (work­ing peo­ple that are play­ing the game for fun).

The Teams from the Kreise Gelsenkirchen, Unna, Glad­beck und Kirch­hellen in response to the deci­sion by the DFL to have so called “Salami Spielt­age” (Match day Games spread out Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day from next sea­son on) decided to call for a Strike on Sun­day, 1 March 2009. DFB Vice Pres­i­dent Her­mann Korf­macher, Boss of the Fußball und Leich­tath­letikver­ban­des West­falen (West­phalian Soc­cer, Track & Field Fed­er­a­tion) instructed the Chair­men of the West­phalian Kreise to com­pletely can­cel and resched­ule the first match day of the return legs for this season.

Even Ama­teur teams from other Regions are now con­tem­plat­ing join­ing the protests of the clubs from Nordrhein-Westfalen to show their sol­i­dar­ity against the Bun­desliga Sun­day after­noon game. “This was the last straw for us” said Wies­badener Kre­is­fußball­wart Dieter Elsen­bast in the “Wies­badener Kurier” explain­ing his rec­om­men­da­tion to the Clubs, to not play on this match day.

“We can­not allow them to just do what they want” said Elsen­bast, who also con­tacted the Hes­sis­chen Fußball Ver­band (Hes­s­ian Soc­cer Fed­er­a­tion). If they agree, “we will can­cel all games and think about a com­bined protest”.

The key ques­tion is why did Theo Zwanziger come out with a state­ment promis­ing pos­si­ble com­pen­sa­tion in the first place? Espe­cially when you con­sider that appar­ently no one has sorted out the way this is sup­posed to be han­dled. Who is going to deter­mine what the finan­cial losses of these teams would be? Is there a for­mula that allows com­pen­sa­tion per Fan lost? Is it a one time pay­ment just for the com­ing sea­son or will it be recur­ring as long as the new TV Deal is valid?

There is a meet­ing sched­uled for 25 Feb­ru­ary between Zwanziger and a del­e­ga­tion from the Ama­teur teams. Surely it would have been smarter to wait on the out­come of these talks instead of rais­ing hopes for the Ama­teur Teams that may turn into empty promises and more drama between the Fed­er­a­tion and the League?