After the second division soccer team removed the Gazprom lettering from their jersey, they are now separated from the sponsor. The deal with Gazprom has always been controversial.
Schalke already removed the Gazprom logo from the shirt for the weekend’s game.
In a crisis, things sometimes happen with a speed that astonishes even experienced observers. FC Schalke 04’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of them. Until Monday, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom was one of the financiers of the German second division club, whose lettering was also emblazoned on Schalke’s jersey. Last week, the club’s management decided to compete without the Gazprom label from now on. Schalke announced on Monday that the controversial partnership with Gazprom would be terminated.
The board of directors of FC Schalke 04, with the approval of the supervisory board, decided to end the partnership between the #S04 and #GAZPROM to end prematurely.
More information will follow shortly. pic.twitter.com/0Xk3TLty0I
— FC Schalke 04 (@s04) February 28, 2022
Generous donor
The remarkable thing: Schalke makes this decision in a by no means comfortable position, the liabilities amount to 237 million euros. The full financial ability of the association to remain unaffected by this decision, according to a statement. The association will present a new partner shortly. This assessment might turn out to be somewhat optimistic. Because Gazprom was a very generous donor.
Even in the second division, the contract, which runs until 2025, still brings in 9 million euros per season, in the event of a resurgence it would have been 15 million. When the Russians joined Gelsenkirchen in 2007, the commitment was worth around 10 million euros per season. There had already been protests back then, but they fell silent after a while.
Clemens Tönnies, the former Schalke supervisory board chairman, had threaded the deal at the time. In the summer of 2020, after a Covid outbreak, Tönnies was criticized for the working conditions in his meat company. He then resigned from his post. The patriarch’s withdrawal was welcomed as a liberation from his dependence. Because Tönnies was not an unproblematic contemporary. So he had aroused public displeasure with a statement that the Africa’s birth rate linked to global warming.
? You can see this awesome mural at the @s04 club facilities since Wednesday.
Here are impressive before and after pictures for you: What a difference, don’t you think? ?#S04 @s04_en #Gazprom #Football pic.twitter.com/jdsdywnMx6
— Gazprom Football (@GazpromFootball) February 20, 2022
Archrival Solidarity
The tense relationship between the club and Tönnies has repeatedly been pointed out by critics, and so the pending termination of the contract with Gazprom is also to be understood as a settlement of the legacy of the former chairman of the supervisory board.
Whether Schalke can actually digest this failure financially remains to be seen. However, the crisis is producing strange alliances: Dortmund club boss Hans-Joachim Watzke is said to have promised help in conversation with his Schalke colleague Bernd Schröder. Even their worst rival doesn’t seem to want to accept a ruin for Schalke.