Rarely does the future of one club seem so dreary yet so promising at the same time as with German first division club Köln 99ers.
The 99ers’ main investor Jürgen Wollny said the 2006 BBL champions are dangerously close to filing for insolvency just 14 months after the Hamburg businessman saved the club at the last second. But Wollny also said he already has major plans to have Köln play with eight or nine Germans next season.
Wollny told German news magazine Spiegel Online that the club is missing 600,000 euros, and that players, coaches and office personnel have had to wait up to two months for their money.
“It’s not possible to play until the end of the season with my own money and finance next season,” Wollny told Spiegel.
The report said a final decision is planned for by Thursday before the crucial relegation battle against LTi Giessen 46ers.
News of possible insolvency for the struggling Köln club – in 16th place of the 18 teams in BBL – comes just 14 months after Wollny stepped in, actually after the club had filed their bankruptcy paperwork with the league though the BBL had not yet processed it.
Last week, Wollny met with the city of Cologne to try to piece together enough sponsorship deals to at least limit the hole in the budget he admits he would be willing to fill. But he wants a long-term plan — more like five years — rather than merely something lasting until the end of the season.
Another part of the plan has a team to be assembled with eight or nine Germans, a direct answer to issues raised recently by German national team coach Dirk Bauermann, who was at the meeting with the city.
“We want to bring in (German) players who are just sitting on the bench elsewhere,” said Wollny, who calls his idea “Team Germany.”
Wollny believes that by the 2014 World Championship, the Köln club could provide a number of players for the German national team. And he hopes the idea of having Germans get the majority of the playing time will attract a wider base of sponsors beyond local or even regional levels.
