Sports director Jonas Boldt (41, right) steps up against ex-HSV finance director Thomas Wüstefeld (53, not in the picture). © Christian Charisius/dpa
“If you want to get something good out of Thomas Wüstefeld’s board era, then that everyone here has now understood what the worst case looks like,” Boldt told the soccer magazine “11Freunde”. “If Thomas Wüstefeld were still on the board, I wouldn’t be here anymore.”
The medical entrepreneur Wüstefeld still owns a good five percent of the shares in HSV Fußball AG. From January to September 2022 he was CFO of the second division club, but resigned from this post because of numerous allegations against him in his work as an entrepreneur.
“Because of the negative press about him, some business partners temporarily stopped working with HSV. As soon as he was gone, they proactively called back and got back on board,” said Boldt.
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In January of this year, however, the public prosecutor’s office dropped all investigations into Wüstefeld on suspicion of fraud and breach of trust. The entrepreneur had always rejected them and now sees himself confirmed. “I couldn’t understand the allegations from the start and I’m glad that the public prosecutor’s office came to the same conclusions,” Wüstefeld told the “Bild” newspaper.
But coach Walter is also negative about the cooperation. “When Thomas Wüstefeld showed up in the players’ wing, I told him clearly that as CFO he had no business in the locker room,” he is quoted as saying in the “11Freunde” article.