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Bernhard Burgener uses a trick to avoid being thrown out of office. Before the FCB president can be elected to the club’s board of directors at the next general meeting, he prefers to decide on his own future. Yesterday afternoon, Burgener announced on the club’s own website that he would no longer run for election. Re-election would have been a huge surprise given recent events. In the past three years, votes for Burgener had fallen from 82 to 78 to 65 percent. The movement “Yystoo por e FCB!” Launched a week ago and now being followed by more than 9,000 people, it ousted Burgener, CEO Roland Heri and the club’s board member Peter von Büren. All three will no longer stand for the November 9 elections at FCB-GV im Joggeli.
Due to the special constellation at FCB with club, AG and holding, this does not mean that Burgener and Co, as requested by many fans and demanded by “Yystoo”, will withdraw completely. All three are simply resigning a position on the association’s board, which owns a 25 percent stake in FC Basel 1893 AG. The remaining 75 per cent is owned by FC Basel Holding AG, whose majority shareholder is Burgener.
According to Burgener, “Yystoo” had no influence
Burgener’s dual role as club delegate and board chairman was criticized at the last general meeting. At that time, the FCB had legally rejected an applicant and then announced that it would adjust the outdated statutes for the following year. Burgener has now presented his solution. It says: “We are unraveling the structures of the GA and the association and therefore we are also meeting a need expressed by the members.” Members must now elect a new club president and board to represent their interests as requested. Burgener sells his retirement as a “process that began with the previous General Assembly.” A reaction to “Yystoo” or public criticism of him is “not at all”.
At “Yystoo” people are happy with Burgener’s decision. “That is a very good development. We welcome the separation, ”says spokesman Patrick Fassbind. Even if Burgener doesn’t want to admit this, Fassbind is sure that the rapid spread of “Yystoo” and the resulting pressure also contributed to this decision. Fassbind also notes that “Yystoo” has not yet reached its goal: “One of our demands has not yet been met, as Messrs. Burgener and Heri will remain at FCB. And nothing will change that. In an interview on the FCB website, Burgener said: “I have emphasized several times that I certainly will not let the FCB down in such a situation with all the sporting and economic challenges that lie ahead.”
Give up the expendable
Burgener therefore only renounces what he can do without. As owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors, you still have decision-making authority. With the board of the independent association, whose president will also sit as a delegate at the AG, Burgener wants to “work together and seek the best solutions to the challenges of the FCB.” But you can also override it with your fellow board members at any time.
It is not yet clear who will be elected to the club’s board of directors and who will succeed Burgener as president there. “We are excited to see what the selection process will look like,” says Fassbind. The FCB itself has not yet presented candidates. It is clear that cooperation will not be easy for both parties.
Both FCB and “Yystoo” complain that the other has not yet made contact with the other side. At the weekend Heri gave a radio interview in which he said he thought it was a shame that the initiators had not contacted FCB. On Monday, “Yystoo” posted a response on the website with the title “Nothing learned.” Fassbind and company criticize the way the FCB leadership manages its movement. “The management of a forward-thinking club tries by itself to defuse conflicts and does not wait for someone to get in touch with them,” he says, among other things. Yystoo will probably only be satisfied when Burgener and company have also given up their other offices at FCB.
