Football department meeting 2026: Rolfes and Co. report - Honours and elections

At the beginning of the meeting in the press conference room at the BayArena, TSV Bayer 04 football department head Jürgen Gelsdorf welcomed the members present.

promotion hero Harry Gniech honoured for 65 YEARS

This was followed by honours for long-serving members who have been with TSV Bayer 04 for 25 years or more. Among them: Harry Gniech part of the Bundesliga promotion team of 1979, was honoured as a thank you for his decades of loyalty:

65 years:

• Harry Gniech

50 years:

• Dr Hubertus Behncke

40 years:

• Klaus Bruckmann
• Peter Litzinger
• Norbert Voss (not present)

25 years:

• Stephan Hauer

Rolfes and Co. update members

The annual reports were the next item on the agenda. Bayer 04 Managing Director Sport Simon Rolfes began with a report on the sporting situation for the first team over the past twelve months. Linda Schöttler (women's teams), Slawomir Czarniecki (youth teams) and Dirk Dreher (veterans team) also gave their reports to the meeting.

unanimous votes

Another key item on the agenda was the election of new members of the football department. Meinolf Sprink, who has worked at Bayer 04 for many years, most recently as Director of Fans/Social Affairs until 2024, was in charge of the election.

All proposed candidates were elected unanimously, with no votes against or abstentions. They were elected to their respective positions:

• Jürgen Gelsdorf as head of the football department of TSV Bayer 04
• Linda Schöttler for women's football
• Slawomir Czarniecki for the area of young talent
• Dirk Dreher for the veterans team
• Manfred Vetter for the Committee of Elders

rounded off in a convivial atmosphere

After the official part, the evening ended with snacks and drinks in a relaxed atmosphere.