Reinhard Rauball, for the third time
For the third time Dr Reinhard Rauball will become BVB’s president. For the third time he will take over the club during a very difficult period as BVB is struggling to survive.In season 1978/79 things at BVB went haywire. Karl Heinz Rühl replaced Otto Rehhagel as Borussia’s coach. Rühl wanted to create a whole new team of youngsters and thus kicked some important players. The team demanded Rühl’s demission. The club itself was at this point in fact without leadership due to president Günther’s full-time job. At a turbulent annual meeting in January 1979 32-year old lawyer Reinhard Rauball was named new president. Rauball had a clear focus on the future. Under his presidency BVB parted with its old image of “Beer, steel and coal” and got the turn-around to being a professional club on the one hand and a club of traditions on the other hand. His first presidency lasted till September 1982. Reinhard Rauball stepped down in respect of his own businesses and former BVB-treasurer Jürgen Vogt took over.
In season 1984/85 BVB was once again with rapid strides on its way to chaos on and off the pitch. The fans once again demanded Rauball to return. On 20th of October, at the home match against Karlsruher SC (BVB lost 0:2), the fans revolted. After the match a sit-down strike on Westfalenstadion’s pitch took place. The board, manager and coach got to feel pure hate and anger. 2 days later the complete board stepped down. Dortmund’s district court appointed Reinhard Rauball (president), Gerd Niebaum (vice-president) and Jürgen Vogt (treasurer) as an emergency board. At this time BVB had debts of 8.3 Mio DM (sg.com: ca. 4.25 Mio Euro). On the other side there was a non-accessible bank account with 4 Mio DM. In fact BVB was bankrupt. The team passed on match and annual bonuses, which saved BVB another 1 Mio DM. Adding to that the city of Dortmund and Dortmund breweries helped. Though the season 1985/86 was awful on the pitch, many look back at it as the start of a whole new era. By winning the relegation matches against Fortuna Köln, BVB avoided dropping to 2.Bundesliga. Rauball and Niebaum succeeded in making the turn-around and recapitalisation of the club. Rauball thought that his job was done and gave the presidential duty to Gerd Niebaum.
18 years later the club is in the biggest crisis of its history and Reinhard Rauball once again enters BVB’s stage. At next month’s annual meeting Rauball is supposed to be elected as BVB’s president for the third time.
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