Hamburg have been dealt a financial blow after billionaire shareholder Klaus-Michael Kuhne announced he is to stop backing the Bundesliga club due to industry fees now being on a different level .
Kuhne, 80, began investing in his local club in 2015 when he purchased a 7.5 per cent stake for €18.75million, while he also bought the naming rights for their stadium, seeing the previous name – Volksparkstadion – return.
It is estimated that the Kuhne + Nagel majority owner has invested about €60m in the club in total, helping ease their previous financial woes and secure player signings.
But Kuhne, who Forbes reports as being worth €13.1bn, has become unimpressed by the state of modern football, highlighting inflated fees and poor signings.
[€60m is] a disproportionate amount of money, Kuhne told Handelsblatt. But the fees being spent in the industry now are on a different level altogether.
This club has been through some difficult times. There have been so many changes and some transfers have been complete flops, so it s obvious that you start getting concerned when you ve invested as much money as I have.
I m done for the time being.
