Football section meets at media centre

There were no elections on the agenda this time as Linda Schöttler (Women), Friedhelm Renno (Elders council), Dirk Dreher (Veterans) and Roman Klossek (Youth) were only elected or confirmed in their posts last year.

After Jürgen Gelsdorf opened the meeting as the head of the football section at TSV Bayer 04 and members who have passed away were remembered – including former president Dr. Jürgen Schwericke and the big bayer04 fan Heinz Ern – 15 members were then honoured for being at the club for 25 years and more. For 25 years of membership of Bayer 04Jahre : Habib Ben-Slimane, Jürgen von Einem, Jürgen Weingarten, Michael Wagner, Matthias Brücken, Emil Szymura, Hubert Makel, Ingo Mohr, Hans-Willi Käfer-Ewertz and Helmut Teske; for 40 years: Jürgen Scharf, Gerd Medla, Karl-Günter Storr; for 65 years: Willi Kühl, Heinz-Dieter Nelles; for 70 years: Hajo Schroeder. All those honoured received a Bayer 04 shirt with their name on.

As usual, a review of the sporting achievements over the past year was included. It was noticeable that the records to the end of the season in the middle of 2017 were significantly worse than the course of the rest of the year. That applies to the Bayer 04 pros who failed to qualify for European competition for the first time in seven years in May 2017 but are now back on course to qualify for Europe under new coach Heiko Herrlich. The same goes for the women who were relegated from the Bundesliga at the end of last season but are now on the verge returning straightaway to the top flight. Michael Schade, CEO of Bayer 04 Fußball GmbH, explained the situation with the Werkself pros and he congratulated the members for their many years of loyalty to the club. Schade, who leaves his post on 30 June to go into retirement, also told the meeting  about his successor Fernando Carro. Events in the youth section were presented by Helmut Jungheim, director of the Bayer 04 Academy and, for the first time, Dirk Dreher was on the podium for the Veterans team.