It has only been two weeks since the KFC Uerdingen football club celebrated their third division relegation. The 1-1 draw at Waldhof Mannheim was exciting. One more goal would have meant relegation. But with relegation, the club looked to better times.
Several hundred fans cheered the team in Krefeld. The bankruptcy proceedings were well on their way. The city council had approved a 16 million euro renovation of the ailing Grotenburg stadium. And the new investor from Armenia was ready to finance the game operations. But then the end came unexpectedly on Wednesday. The late goal, which Waldhof Mannheim did not manage, has to a certain extent still fallen. At the end of two weeks of stoppage time.
As things stand, the investor is neither willing to deposit seven million euros in security for participation in the third division nor to go into the fourth division with the club. The “Noah Group” is withdrawing. The bankruptcy procedure has failed. The outsourced “KFC Uerdingen 05 Fußball GmbH” will be wound up. SV Meppen from Emsland, which was actually relegated, but could now take over the vacated place in the third division, could benefit. In Krefeld, the parent club KFC Uerdingen intends to apply for a place in the fourth division. In an open letter it says: “Now there is an honest chance of a new beginning.”
SV Meppen would be the fifth third division team that has been relegated in terms of sport, but still manages to stay up at the green table. In 2009 Wacker Burghausen was allowed to stay in the league because Kickers Emden withdrew. In 2011 Werder Bremen II stayed in third class because TuS Koblenz waived the license. In 2013 Darmstadt 98 celebrated after the season because Kickers Offenbach did not receive a license. And in 2017, SC Paderborn celebrated staying in the third division because Munich renounced a license in 1860. The German Football Association (DFB) will decide whether Meppen will benefit this time. The gaming committee wants to make the final admission decisions “in the coming weeks”.
Four months ago, the withdrawal of the investor Mikhail Ponomarew triggered the insolvency of KFC GmbH. The Armenian investor took over its shares and debts of an estimated ten million euros. The fact that the third division would not be sustainable was indicated despite the sporting relegation when the DFB demanded an unusually high security deposit for the license. “The extraordinarily strict license conditions are likely to be due to the pre-insolvency economy of the KFC,” explains the insolvency administrator. The investor Ponomarew hadn’t exactly shown himself to be a paragon of reliability.
In 2002, 2005 and 2007 the KFC Uerdingen saved itself three times through bankruptcies. This time the trick doesn’t seem to work. The parent club wants to keep the youth teams and participate with the first team in the Regionalliga West. The city council should re-examine the stadium renovation.
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