“The market is completely deregulated,” laments Oke Göttlich, president of FC Sankt Pauli, who campaigns for “another football”

The manager of the German club is a star in the football landscape and intends to take advantage of the sporting success of his club, promoted to the Bundesliga, to change the rules of the game.

At the prestigious table of the presidents of the German elite clubs, among investors and businessmen, an intruder has slipped in this year: a representative appointed by his supporters. Oke Göttlich (48 years old), former sports journalist and CEO of a music distribution company, is president of FC Sankt Pauli, which is returning to the Bundesliga after thirteen years in the antechamber. He wants to be the guarantor of an openly anti-capitalist institution that “sticks to its values, in an increasingly commercial environment”.

Elected and re-elected for ten years as head of the supervisory board by his fans, both owners and decision-makers, the man who learned his trade among the ultras today embodies the visceral commitment of the Hamburg club, which actively fights for the integration of refugees and against all forms of discrimination, proudly displaying an LGBT+ flag on the roof of its Millerntor Stadion.

Franceinfo: sport: How did you go from sports journalist, then director of a music distribution company, to president of a Bundesliga club?

Oke Göttlich: My “utopian space” has always been Sankt Pauli. The fans and the people in the stadium have inspired me since I was 15. Everything I have done in my life has been connected in one way or another to the Millerntor Stadion and Sankt Pauli. I met the people with whom I started the club fanzine and the people with whom I founded my music distribution company.

“The only thing in my life that has nothing to do with St. Pauli is meeting my wife in Cologne. Well, I didn’t know it when we met, but it turns out that she is a St. Pauli fan herself.”

Oke Göttlich, president of FC Sankt Pauli

to franceinfo: sport

Why were you chosen to lead the club?

Being president of St. Pauli is a full-time volunteer job. Only privileged people can hold this office. Usually, they are old, rich white men. [rires]. I was lucky that my music distribution company was quite successful, so the club members asked me, when I was a slightly younger, rich white guy, to become president. I have been in this position for ten years now and we have been able to fulfil a little dream: promotion to the Bundesliga. The position has now been paid, for the past two years, because the revenue has quadrupled. The members decided that it was no longer possible to do this work voluntarily.

Why do you think a football club should belong to its fans?

Our participatory and democratic system is dear to us, because we believe that the community transforms society faster than the established order. That is why we are fighting to preserve the 50+1 rule in Germany. [qui interdit à un même actionnaire extérieur de détenir plus de la moitié des parts d’un club]Clubs must belong to their members, they must always remain in the majority.

“In clubs run by investors, their only way of thinking about football is to ask themselves ‘how can I get two euros if I have invested one euro?'”

Oke Göttlich, president of FC Sankt Pauli,

to franceinfo: sport

What do you criticize about the current professional football system?

We have far too few regulations. Money is flowing in abundance, but the market is totally deregulated, ultra-capitalist and commercial. The integrity of the competition should be a priority. With the money from television rights, for example, we always give more to the big clubs and less to the others. This is something we want to change.

How do you apply these principles within the club?

We give up 3 to 5 million euros per year in sponsorship, probably even more with the promotion to the Bundesliga, because our members have decided not to sell the name of our stadium. We don’t just proclaim them, we live by our values. Ultimately, this helps to strengthen our brand, but it has never been a strategy. Everything is set up, decided by the members. We can proudly say: “We are the only fan-run club playing in one of the top five leagues in Europe”. Of course, in Germany there are still fan-owned clubs, but they are not integrated into the board and the decision-making process as is the case at St. Pauli.