The chaos in Hoffenheim continues. Sports director Andreas Schicker is now also said to be under discussion.
Bild was the first to report on this, and it appears that Christoph Henssler, the interim chairman of TSG Hoffenheim, who comes from the ultra scene, has scheduled a shareholders’ meeting for Monday.
The day after Sunday’s top match at FC Bayern, Schicker will have to justify his actions in the data affair—in which the Austrian, as managing director, had outsourced the whistleblower office during an ongoing investigation. The reason given was to prevent possible conflicts of interest, as the office was managed by internal employees. That is one interpretation of this story.
The other: It has been proven that an external law firm was entrusted with dealing with the matter, and Schicker in particular could have put himself in a conflict of interest by reassigning the investigation, as he could also have been affected by the matter. There does not yet appear to be a final investigation report on the matter. However, it is striking that A former senior employee of Spielbetriebs-GmbH who worked for Dietmar Hopp’s foundation was suspended from duty in connection with the matter, as was an employee of the association. And Hopp’s investors have a vested interest – understandably so – in seeing a representative who will follow their decisions elected to the top of the association in the upcoming elections in March.
The Ultras are allegedly backing another candidate
Henssler, who is apparently rebellious towards Hopp, is said to be unable to run for office due to certain changes in the statutes that were made after his recent election to the board. The Ultras are allegedly backing another candidate. If Schicker were to be dismissed, he would be the fourth managing director to have to step down or resign within a few months, after Markus Schütz and Frank Briel (dismissed in October 2025) and Tim Jost, who only agreed a termination agreement with TSG on Tuesday evening.
However, Schicker is not expected to leave, but rather to continue as sporting director. It is questionable whether the 39-year-old will accept this, especially since he has not only stabilized the club, but also surprisingly led it to third place in the Bundesliga. Henssler, who has the final say as head of the association due to Hopp’s return of the majority of voting rights three years ago, is then to appoint legal advisor Arno Metz, who once came to TSG from Schütz’s law firm, and Asmaham Gamgani, who is responsible for “People and Culture” and also joined under Schütz, as interim managers. Before the association, as the main shareholder, has a new “boss” legitimized by a proper election, who will then set the future direction in Kraichgau.
The situation is somewhat curious and convoluted. This is because there are other facts that need to be taken into account: for example, the fact that Briel and Schütz stumbled over their actions against player agent Roger Wittmann at Hopp, which were justified to a certain extent by Schicker as a witness in a court case and which the billionaire initially supported. At least that is how Hopp was quoted in a club statement before he later made different statements to the media. Or the fact that the influential SAP supervisory board member Gerhard Oswald is suddenly back at Hopp’s side, as seen most recently in November 2025 when VfL Wolfsburg courted Schicker. Or the fact that Hopp would have let Schicker go at the time, as the Austrian was also flirting intensively with the advances from Lower Saxony. In the end, the transfer failed due to Henssler’s veto. This raises the question of what is behind the 29-year-old’s change of heart regarding Schicker.
