3. League
Dietmar Klinger has completed 242 games for Bayer Uerdingen. Photo: Thorsten Tillmann
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The KFC Uerdingen faces an uncertain future. A successor to the one leaving at the end of the season Mikhail Ponomarev is not in sight. The club is facing financial ruin. Tried currently Ponomarev to find a new investor for the association.
RevierSport recently spoke to club legend Matthias Herget (65)who thinks nothing of another investor entry at the club from the legendary Grotenburg. This looks similar Dietmar Klingerwho brought the DFB Cup to Krefeld in 1985 together with Herget.
RevierSport did with the 63 year old Klinger, who completed 242 games (17) for Bayer Uerdingen on the situation at KFC Uerdingen spoken.
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Honestly no! In general, it is well known that exactly what happens now at KFC when you get into the hands of an investor or someone you depend on. You can put it in an exaggerated way: The KFC Uerdingen is Mikhail Ponomarev or in other words: Ponomarev is the KFC Uerdingen. And now Ponomarev leaves and Uerdingen falls by the wayside.
You are listed in seventh place of the club’s record players. What happens in you when you see it all now?
I am already sad. You have a lot of memories of Krefeld. But I’m also honest: I’m not frustrated by it now. I live in Essen and have also made almost 200 games for Rot-Weiss. RWE is much closer to me than KFC.
Why?
Mainly because the successor club KFC Uerdingen has never really looked after long-serving players since Bayer was eliminated. When I see everything that is being organized for the ex-players in Bochum, Oberhausen, Schalke, Duisburg or Essen, then I have to say that it’s just great. That strengthens the connection to the club. That never happened at KFC. I don’t think there is even a traditional team. I always enjoyed watching the RevierSport tournament, the traditional NRW masters in Mülheim, and never saw the KFC. Why? Because they can’t get a team up and running. We were always a great indoor team. But that’s just a minor thing. There is a lack of structures and organization everywhere. No stadium, no training grounds, no youth performance center, nothing at all. Just the Russian businessman who is now stepping down.
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What do you think: How will, how should things go on at KFC Uerdingen?
That is of course not easy to answer. But the fact is: the association should break away from investors and patrons first. I know how it is with these donors. It actually started back then at Westfalia Herne with Erhard Goldbach and it didn’t work. Westfalia is also a major league team today. I played Schwarz-Weiß Essen at the ETB and after one round we were also leaders in the Bundesliga 2 because we had a lot of money. Then the good man was gone, we ended up in the middle of the table and 16 or 17 players were sold in the summer. Today the ETB has been in the top league for years. It only works with the help of the city.
What do you mean?
The example of Rot-Weiss Essen shows that with the support of the city, see stadium and sponsors, you can work seriously and, in the case of RWE, you can finally be successful. The city of Krefeld, the sponsors should now turn to the KFC and turn it into a solid football club. I took a look: Krefeld has almost 230,000 inhabitants, compared to Kiel 240,000. It also works with the handball club THW and Holstein in league two. In Krefeld, in this really big city, the penguins and the KFC should somehow work. I keep my fingers crossed for the club, the people and the fans, and there are still a lot of them, keeping their fingers crossed that the club won’t go under and that there will soon be positive headlines again.
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