Last week, Waldhof Mannheim parted company with its sporting director Jochen Kientz. Now SVW president and patron Bernd Beetz is raising eyebrows with serious accusations.
SV Waldhof announced their separation a few hours before the DFB Cup match against Union Berlin last Wednesday – with nebulous hints as to the reasons. Now Beetz shed some light on the matter during a fan question-and-answer session organised by the club and addressed already existing rumours: According to them, Kientz had deliberately tried to conceal a positive Corona test in the team’s environment.
“Silence or not, my collar is bursting now. A coronatest was kept quiet. Employees were instructed not to inform the management. That was a very clear violation, the supervisory board could not react otherwise,” said Beetz. Shortly afterwards, the supervisory board passed a unanimous resolution to dismiss Kientz.
Kientz is defending himself against the accusations and has hired the well-known lawyer Christoph Schickhardt. “The accusations are so serious and at first sight so baseless that I will now carry out another thorough examination before there will be a statement on this from our side,” Schickhardt told the “Rheinpfalz” on Wednesday. “The public statements by Beetz were a “gross violation of labour law guidelines”: “The club will have to compensate for the damage to its reputation that Mr. Kientz has suffered as a result,” said Schickhardt.
