It is the Unterhachinger version of the American Dream: Marc Unterberger, 34, will succeed Sandro Wagner as the new head coach of the Spielvereinigung in the summer and thus follows in a line of ancestors well-known predecessors such as Peter Grosser, Lorenz-Günther Köstner, Werner Lorant, Andreas Brehme, Klaus Augenthaler or Heiko Herrlich. Unterberger started out as a U11 coach at Hachingen and was recently relegated from the Bundesliga with the U19s. Once he helped out in the restaurant, he made the leap from dishwasher to professional trainer, so to speak. At the shareholders’ meeting on Thursday, club president Manfred Schwabl drew a comparison with Freiburg football coach Christian Streich and Heidenheimer Frank Schmidt, who have been writing success stories in their clubs for years. “It’s time for one from your own stable,” said Schwabl, who has great confidence in the ambitious coach.
A shortcoming, however, is that Unterberger does not have the football teacher’s license, which is mandatory for the supervision of a club in the top three professional leagues. Those responsible in Unterhaching have applied to the German Football Association (DFB), which is responsible for the third division, for an exemption for Unterberger in the coming season if the leaders of the regional league Bayern manage to climb – and also have a financial problem. “We had very good talks with the DFB,” says Schwabl.
What will happen to Daniel Bierofka, who was relegated with the SpVgg U17?
The future of Daniel Bierofka, who recently suffered relegation from the Bundesliga with his U17 team, is still unclear. “We’ll sit down with Biero next week, then we’ll clarify that,” says Schwabl, emphasizing that the former lion coach did not speculate on a Wagner successor, it was rather clear from the start that Unterberger was intended for this .
A whole range of sporting topics was addressed by the President and Managing Director of the partnership limited by shares (KGaA) at the meeting of the shareholders, 132 of whom were personally present at the sports park. Because finances and football are closely related. Example junior national player and top talent Maurice Krattenmacher: For the 17-year-old there was a lucrative offer in winter. “They would have bought him and left him with us for two or three years,” reveals Schwabl. But then the playmaker injured his knee badly over New Year’s Eve playing recreational football. Nevertheless, he hopes “for a lucrative sale if Maurice recovers well from the injury,” said Schwabl.
The Munich Ravens apparently don’t want to buy the sports park after all
The President described the financial situation as reasonably stable: There were no more bank debts and in the 2021/22 financial year a profit of 1.16 million euros was posted through the resale of Karim Adeyemi from Salzburg to Dortmund. Nevertheless, it is financially so tight that the third division license is not a sure-fire success. We are now waiting to see what conditions the DFB will set. A possible investor was already about to get involved, then Corona and the Ukraine war “postponed” the lender’s plans. For the time being, Schwabl is bearing the main financial burden himself, he has issued a letter of comfort and will continue to plug all the holes.
The President reported news on the planned purchase of the stadium. The deal is higher on the agenda, even if there was a setback in the negotiations with the municipality, which terminated the lease on June 30th. Now parallel agreements are to be drawn up with the SpVgg and the new Munich Ravens football team. As Schwabl explained, the Ravens had assured that they had no own ambitions to acquire the stadium. For the SpVgg boss, on the other hand, the purchase has a higher priority than promotion to the third division: “If both are possible, that would be the royal solution, but first we should secure our homeland.”
