Martin Kind is no longer the managing director of the second division soccer team Hannover 96. The club surprisingly announced this in a press release. It states that the decision is made for “important reasons”.
The longtime club boss Martin Kind was dismissed in the evening as managing director of the professional football company of Hannover 96. This was announced by the board of the parent association Hannover 96 e.V. in a short message. The 78-year-old was “dismissed with immediate effect for important reasons. The committees will decide promptly on the appointment of the management,” it says.
Kind is the majority shareholder of the professional football operation in the second division football team. However, in order to comply with the so-called 50 1 rule of the German Football League, the parent club decides on the filling of the managing director posts. The 50 1 rule is intended to limit the influence of external investors. According to this, the majority of votes must always remain with the registered club if it spins off its professional football department into a corporation.
Kind was elected president of Hannover 96 in 1997 and has since steered the club with only a brief hiatus, creating this juxtaposition of multiple companies himself. He retired as president of the parent club in 2019 to focus solely on professional football at 96. At the general meeting, however, only child opponents were elected to the supervisory board, which then set up a child-critical executive committee. The conflict between the capital and the club side that has been smoldering since then goes back to this.