Philip Holzer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball AG, described the financial situation of the Bundesliga club as “extremely challenging” in an interview with the FAZ.
Holzer spoke of an expected loss of a total of 70 to 80 million euros since the beginning of the pandemic if no or almost no spectators were allowed into the stadium by the end of the season, as the Covid regulations currently provide for.
Peter Hess
sports editor.
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So far, Eintracht has come through the pandemic reasonably well because management has been good in recent years and equity was at a peak of around 80 million euros thanks to two capital measures. This capital was generated in order to use the club's strategic growth areas (stadium expansion, digitization, marketing), investments now have to be postponed in order to survive the Corona period. There is not much left of the equity. Holzer pointed out that Eintracht was hit particularly hard because they generate high spectator-related income in a league comparison and also do not have external sources of money like some other clubs.
The Eintracht supervisory board chairman hopes that the announcement by Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder that he will be taking a different approach and allowing Bayern Munich 10,000 spectators in league games will also lead to a rethinking process in Hesse.
Talks with Prime Minister Volker Bouffier would be held by the Eintracht board.
"We are convinced that, from a scientific point of view, there is nothing to be said against a stadium capacity utilization of 25 percent," said Holzer.