This year the AGM also covered new elections for the board of the football section following the end of the three-year period of office. Meinolf Sprink, director of fans and community affairs was in charge of the vote.
There were no changes as a result of the vote and the section board for the next three years is made up as follows: Linda Schöttler (Women), Dirk Dreher (Veterans team/Council of elders), Roman Klossek (Youth) and Jürgen Gelsdorf as chair of the football section. Only the former Bayer 04 captain and coach Friedhelm Renno, who passed away at the start of the year, is no longer on the section board.
Following the welcome address from Jürgen Gelsdorf, Bayer 04 members who have passed away over the last 12 months were remembered. That was followed by tributes to members of TSV Bayer 04 with 25 years and more membership. Honoured for 25 years of Bayer 04 membership: Jörg Bittner, Helmut Heinz, Peter Küker, Heinz Pier, Dr. Josef Schmitt and Egon Urbach.
Gerd Kentschke and Edward Mattuszewski can look back at 50 years of membership. Hans-Peter Schmidt has clocked up 60 years of membership. But that's not all: Willi Kühl and Heinz-Dieter Nelles have been loyal to the Werkself for 70 years.
The eleven long-serving members were presented with a Bayer 04 shirt with their name on as a thank you for their years of loyalty. In addition, all the long-serving members of the past four years will receive an invite to the Barmenia Lounge for the Bundesliga home game against RB Leipzig (Sunday 23 April, 17.30 CET).
Following the presentations, Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 CEO and sporting managing director Simon Rolfes reported on the situation with the first team. Thomas Eichin (head of the Performance Centre) also addressed the meeting on the Women's and Youth section, Dirk Dreher informed the meeting about the Veterans team.
There were no motions for the AGM.
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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Bayer 04 host top French club Marseille at the BayArena on matchday four in the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League group stage. The match kicks off on Thursday 5 November at 21:00 CET. The latest information on ticket sales.
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The BAYER 04 HILFT Day is celebrating an anniversary: for the tenth year running, a large number of employees of the Bundesliga club have been getting involved in a community project in Leverkusen and the surrounding area. Following the refurbishment of the city library last year, this time around some 70 staff members rolled up their sleeves to help out at the Bunker Youth Centre in Leverkusen-Wiesdorf. With the support of the Lebenshilfe workshops in Leverkusen and partner Coca-Cola, a rubber football pitch was laid, a Bayer 04-style lounge was created and other projects were carried out. Werkself players and coaching staff also gave their all.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen and sponsors club partner NRG24 are continuing their partnership, which has been in place since the summer of 2023. The Bundesliga football club and the energy consultancy firm have extended their successful partnership until 30 June 2027.
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