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It is a simple Word document that intensifies the situation in FC Basel. Players announce almost solemnly that they will show solidarity with the employer. In the document, the players write that they all resign “from April 1 to the moment of the resumption of the official training of the team or for a maximum of April, May, June at five percent of their gross monthly salary”, that is to say , at 1.25 percent of the annual salary.
This punitive offer of exemption leads to further escalation. The first occurs 11 days ago, on Wednesday at 10:09 p.m. FCB management feels pressured because journalists report incomplete information from the club’s perspective on ongoing discussions between management and the first team. The club then wants to reveal everything and announces in a press release that the players have rejected the club’s proposal. That said: Give up 70 percent of wages in crisis months, which is 17.5 percent of annual wages. A rather questionable procedure to help the team in this way.
And so, the FCB team’s advice turns on escalation level 2, offering as a counter-proposal a fourteenth (!) Of the club’s offer. The result is clear: the tablecloth between the leadership and the players has been cut. And otherwise, many dishes were broken throughout the club.
But how did the proud series champion become Hollywood FC? SonntagsBlick illuminates this in the great internal report.
2016 – the beginning
It all starts in the summer of 2016. FCB bosses Bernhard Heusler and Georg Heitz decide to retire and find a buyer. They have become champions eight times in a row, and the club’s turnover at the end of its term is 132 million Swiss francs. They send club legend Marco Streller, who talks to several potential buyers. Burgener will also be asked in January 2017 if interested. The film businessman stated, then he presented himself to other organizations. As demonstrated on Sunday, Sunday, the investigation is not Streller’s first choice.
2017 – the initial shot
It is February 17, when SonntagsBlick reveals Bernhard Burgener’s intentions to buy. Even then it was already clear that Marco Streller would be the head of sports, and Alex Frei and Massimo Ceccaroni would be board members. The idea did not come from Burgener, but he likes it.
Already in April, coach Urs Fischer, who will earn double in the summer, will be fired in the sense of a new beginning. The new leadership quickly meets with Raphael Wicky, Thorsten Fink, and Patrick Rahmen. You choose Wicky, a new face for a new beginning under the concept “Forever red-blue”.
At the July 2017 general meeting, Burgener said, “Nothing will be as it was.” As Swiss champions, FCB qualified directly for the Champions League, which will hardly be the case due to UEFA’s innovations.
Burgener, who grew up in a social building near the Joggeli, has been a successful football and film marketing entrepreneur for over 35 years. He leads completely differently than the jovial Bernhard Heusler. It is far from being as communicative as this and moderate in character.
Streller’s fatal statement
Wicky loses the first game 0-2 at YB, and Captain Matias Delgado resigns for weak reasons, shaking the entire fragile structure for the first time. And Streller is drawn to a fateful statement. “We are 17 points ahead of the Young Boys. There is room to try something. If things go wrong, we still have an initial advantage. The plan is for more young players, more Basel players and everything at a lower cost. After YB’s first championship title, Streller told BLICK: “That was the stupidest statement of my career as a sports manager.”
Parallel to the championship, in which many things go wrong, the club plays the best Champions League in history. 5 wins, including against Manchester City, Manchester United, Lisbon’s Benfica and Moscow’s CSKA, ensure that he has two worry-free years ahead financially. Manuel Akanji is sold to Dortmund for CHF 25 million and then Mohamed Elyounoussi to Southampton for CHF 20 million.
2018 – player uprising
The year begins terribly for Burgener. His lawyer and friend Martin Wagner (57) is shot. A neighbor enters his house and hits him, the three children have to listen to everything above. “The saddest day of my life,” says Burgener. They went through life as close friends for 27 years; five months earlier, Wagner’s wife had died of cancer.
Wagner’s death also matters to the FCB, experts say. Because this channeled many of Burgener’s ideas, he poured them into contracts. And gave it structure. Today he misses some of this.
He remains calm until the summer, even though YB easily becomes the champion. The uproar comes after the first day, when FCB Raphael Wicky shoots after just two losing games and some failed tests. “The trust was gone,” said Streller. Apparently, the club did not like the composition of the coaching staff with Massimo Lombardo and Thomas Häberli. Too sweet, too harmonious, too pleasant, they say behind the scenes. Marco Walker, who sometimes took the bad role, had to leave at Wicky’s request.
After a few weeks, BLICK photographs Marcel Koller as he leaves Burgener’s company at Pratteln BL. Streller is also part of the conversation. Later it will be said that he would have preferred former Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhüttl, who was too expensive. It is a great cinema, like what is happening at FC Hollywood from that moment. First CEO Jean-Paul Brigger pulls down. Valais with a FIFA past is never accepted in Basel, nor does it find its role in the club.
Koller tries with discipline. He does not tolerate cell phone use at the lunch table and lets the bus pass Afimico Pululu when it is too late. But soon the first skirmishes arrive. The two Bundesliga returnees, Valentin Stocker and Fabian Frei, are the team’s spokesmen.
In September, YB Basel beat 7: 1, leaving the nerves blank. And then, in December, everything intensifies.
At Streller, the players complain about the coach. Then there were eleven in Bernhard Burgener’s office. It is an open riot against Koller.
The relationship between the coach and the team breaks, Koller’s authority weakens. Burgener justifies himself: «I am responsible for FCB employees. If someone wants to talk to me, they can also do it. Listening to people is one of my principles ». The “Basler Zeitung” points to Burgener and calls him the “absent latent president”. “I am a president who does not have to be in the center of attention,” he says.
Koller and Streller can start the new year together. But even then there were rumors that the sports director could make small decisions on his own. Too many investments are said to have to be approved by Burgener and the board of directors. And contract transfers or extensions also require the owner’s consent. Streller never has budgetary responsibility like later Ruedi Zbinden.
2019 – Streller’s fiasco
The new year begins with a new zoff with fans. FC Basel joins the Indian club Chennai City. Fans, for whom the offensive strategy of electronic sports is already a thorn in the side, go to the barricades. In terms of sport, everything is going well, you win the cup and you’re still caught up in old power struggles.
For sports director Marco Streller it is clear: Coach Marcel Koller must be replaced. His training methods are too outdated, his leadership style too authoritative. As you can hear from Germany, Achim Beierlorzer, Thorsten Fink and Markus Beginning were also a theme at the time. But you choose the Basel Patrick frame for cost reasons. But then there are the three most notable days of the past.
Tuesday June 11: Streller agrees with Basler Patrick Rahmen, who arrives at Barrage with Aarau and then fails at Xamax. Streller and CEO Roland Heri speak to FC Aarau, but require the transfer of half a million francs.
Wednesday, June 12, Bernhard Burgener’s office. The FCB bosses meet with Koller and his adviser Dino Lamberti. Mineral water and coffee are difficult. The decision of all the bosses, even written, is communicated to Koller. His adviser Lamberti explains that Koller has been working for months. The exemption is granted at the end of the session. Koller and his adviser travel to St. Jakob-Park to clean his office and his locker.
Streller feels betrayed
Thursday, June 14. Everything different! Burgener and most of the technical committee decide at the last second, but prefer to keep Marcel Koller after the cup victory and only one loss in 23 games. Streller feels that his values have been betrayed, he throws himself out in exasperation because the joint decision suddenly collapsed. “Switzerland at the weekend” writes that at the time, the framework was advised by former FCB sports director Georg Heitz, which had an impact. Burgener denies this: “I was able to take over this great club from Bernhard Heusler and Georg Heitz. You will never be mine
hearing bad words about them.
In short, in those days Burgener acted when his critics accuse him: erratic, with often changing opinions. But he himself is convinced that he and the majority of the technical commission made the right decision at the time. In order for Koller to enter the new season, Chief Scout Ruedi Zbinden takes over as Sports Director. The coach tries again with authority, demonstrably not making Fabian Frei (formerly vice president) the captain when Marek Suchy leaves. Zbinden and Koller get along better and better.
The situation changed in the fall when the new David Degen (37), a new co-owner, bought shares in Burgener; owned ten percent. The former player and young businessman views coach Koller and sports manager Zbinden critically. It is agreed that he will be in charge of the commercial and sports strategy on the Board of Directors of FCB Holding.
Degen can give her opinion, but at the operational level, she doesn’t make decisions about everyday business or sports.
2020 – salary scandal
The year begins with a surprise that sports director Ruedi Zbinden is campaigning for an extension with coach Marcel Koller in winter, also publicly. Not all other bosses see it that way because you want to be younger and more modern. Because the goal is to build a kind of football financing like Ajax Amsterdam or Red Bull Salzburg.
In terms of sport, he is solid, you are more or less in YB until the break in Corona, you are in the Cup. And in the Europa League you even stand with one foot in the quarterfinals after a sensational 3-0 in Frankfurt in the first leg.
At this point Burgener sees himself on the right track with his plan: to have finished second twice, to have had the best Champions League season of all time, and now before the next European coup: he sees it. like good. His opinion: At the same time, he had greatly reduced costs and talks about 80 million Swiss francs a year.
But then Corona arrives. And everything that slept before is unleashed again below the surface.
It is April 2 when Bernhard Burgener and Roland Heri schedule discussions with the players. They ask players to cut 70 percent of their April, May, and June wages due to the monumental crisis, which is 17.5 percent of their annual wages. The players’ counteroffer is five percent for the relevant months, and 1.25 percent for the entire year.
Undisguised distrust
In their statement, the team openly expresses skepticism towards Burgener and CEO Roland Heri: “All first-team players are willing to give up part of their salary, even in the next few months when there are no games, provided they do. know where the money is going and what it is used for ». The team council leaders are Valentin Stocker (31) and Fabian Frei (31), who after many years in the club have many friends and contacts in the club haze.
And this creates a culture of mutual aversion that is difficult to understand, much less resolve. And it leads to a whole series of personal discussions.
Starting with the coach’s question. There are many indications that Marcel Koller’s (59) days as coach of the FCB are numbered. His contract expires at the end of the season and only extends with the championship title. Koller has had difficult years in Basel, with the team mutiny against him and the power struggle with former sports director Marco Streller. But his record with a cup victory and the almost certain arrival in the quarterfinals of the Europa League is worth all the honors. But the 1.5 million francs Koller earns annually is simply no longer realistic for a new coach and the Basel austerity course.
Free or Zeidler?
But who will be his successor? There’s a lot to be said for U18 coach Alex Frei, who has already turned down offers from Hannover 96 and Holstein Kiel. St. Gallen coach Peter Zeidler is also very popular.
The sports chief’s question continues. Ruedi Zbinden (60) will have to give way to a younger man in the medium term. Then it comes down to an international solution, with a past in Ajax, Red Bull or Hoffenheim clubs.
And above all, the big question is whether Burgener sells the club. As of today, there are no signs that he is giving up the majority. You are more likely to sell more shares. However, one thing is clear: Club owner Bernhard Burgener decides to sell
Co-owner David Degen is the first point of contact.
Either way: FC Basel will shake in the coming weeks. The main character Burgener once said: “In a good movie, the main actors often find themselves in a difficult situation ten minutes before the end. And then there is a happy ending.
In these human constellations around the great FC Basel, this is currently unimaginable.
BLICK football boss Andreas Böni.
The fronts between FCB leadership and players are toughened. Some have been mad at bosses for months and are now letting them feel it. It is about interpersonal problems and vanities.
The conflict burned months below the surface. It started with the players mutiny against Marcel Koller, continued with Marco Streller’s near-forced resignation, and now exploded after the leaders’ suggestion that players should give up 17.5 percent of their annual salary, which they offered 1.25 percent .
You have to know how special the Basel pavement is. Players have had unusually large power for years. For example, some players are not forgiving that Koller has stayed and that her friend Streller has been left out of the rain. In Basel, you should never forget: as much as individual soccer exponents, who have a shared successful past, annoy each other, so much come together in times of crisis.
One question remains: where are coach Koller and sports director Ruedi Zbinden in terms of leadership? At least in public it works so that they do not intervene. At Koller, who will probably have to leave the club soon anyway, it’s understandable. Zbinden, who is on the verge, does not have at least positive points.
The boy fell into the well. And there really is only one in the build that can prevent it from drowning. Co-owner David Degen understands the financial needs and, as a former player, those of Stocker and company. You must now mediate between the parties.
And what about the sales rumors about Burgener? In the end, it’s simple: If the owner doesn’t want to sell, then they don’t have to. So far there are almost no signs that he wants to.
Who would take over? The rumors that David Degen should have a preemptive right are probably not far from the truth.
