“During a pandemic, I won’t rule out anything,” Watzke said in an interview when asked about selling a key player.
The important thing for the club is financial balance
Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said that while the club does not want to lose any of its star players like Erling Haaland or Jadon Sancho, the COVID-19 pandemic situation may force their hand. Haaland, in particular, was strongly associated with the departure from the club, with Real Madrid, who had a strong interest in the 20-year-old striker. “During a pandemic, I won’t rule out anything,” Watzke said in an interview when asked about selling a key player. “But that’s not necessarily the goal. The most important thing is the financial balance. We want to have a strong team on the field and still be financially stable. If we’re going to play without fans next season, we will have to think about selling the player. Because asking for a loan from banks just not selling the player will not be our approach.”
BVB are saving as much fund as possible
In terms of how Dortmund are dealing with the financial strain caused by the pandemic, Watzke acknowledged the sacrifice from the players while also revealing when he thinks the club will return to where they were financially before the pandemic. “We are saving as much money as possible,” said Watzke. “Our players continue to forgo a certain percentage of their salaries to avoid still a possible reduction in working hours for the rest of the company. The money that we are losing at the moment, we will not be able to return soon. It will take at least five years to reach the status that we had before the crisis. However, because we have worked very conservatively over the past decade, we had no debt.”