This was announced by the Bundesliga soccer club on Saturday. “I take overall responsibility for the current situation of our club,” said Bruckner. “I had a lot of discussions both on the day of the game against Vaduz and afterwards, which ultimately led to this decision.”
Several media had already reported on Friday about the surprising resignation of the club president. A good future for the club and a united association are important to his team, which is “apparently no longer possible in the current constellation,” emphasized Bruckner. Unfortunately, it has never been possible to reverse the “negative mood” that has prevailed since the election three years ago. The 57-year-old Viennese thanked his “heart club” and did not rule out that someone from his team will also be part of a presidency in the future.
No successor yet
A successor has not yet been determined; a candidate has yet to be found for election at the 2022 Annual General Meeting at the end of November. “Of course, we will not end our functions in the Presidium immediately, but will continue them and then carry out a proper handover with the successor Presidium,” added Bruckner, who was elected Rapid President in November 2019. Michaela Dorfmeister, Gerhard Höckner, Monisha Kaltenborn, Nikolaus Rosenauer, Stefan Singer and Gerry Willfurth have been part of his team since the beginning and Michael Hatz since June 2022.
Bruckner also emphasized that Rapid survived “probably the most difficult economic crisis since World War II in a financially stable manner”. According to media reports, there is also a resignation of business manager Christoph Peschek in the room, there was no statement on Saturday for the time being.
Those responsible had tried to prevent a trainer discussion on Friday. Sports director Zoran Barisic demonstratively backed coach Ferdinand Feldhofer. “We know Rapid is a very emotional club, a very explosive place. It’s important to draw the right conclusions, but also to keep calm,” said Barisic. Rapid had previously failed in the play-off for the Conference League against the Swiss second division club FC Vaduz.
Source: Nachrichten
