Dresden – The extraordinary general meeting of the German Speed Skating Association (DESG), which was cancelled on March 28 due to the corona crisis, will not be made up for at a later date.
“If you look at the Corona measures realistically, the election of the Presidium will certainly only take place in a proper MV,” said Vice President Uwe Rietzke in an interview with the German Press Agency. The 57-year-old from Dresden will therefore presumably lead the association on a provisional basis until this ordinary general meeting planned for September.
A new president should be elected at the DESG meeting in Erfurt, has been vacant since Stefanie Teeuwen’s resignation in November 2019. Two candidates had officially submitted their applications for these elections: Claudia Pechstein’s partner Matthias Grosse and Michael Kurz, who was previously completely unknown in the speed skating scene.
It is questionable whether the explosive financial situation of the DESG will relax at least a little by autumn. «At the moment, no one can really say what effects the Corona crisis will have on the sports world as a whole and the DESG in concrete terms. We are in close contact with the DOSB and BMI to master this difficult time together, »said Rietzke. “Certainly the companies are currently busy with securing their own livelihood instead of starting a new sponsorship.”
Grosse had announced that in the event of his presidency, the association’s financial gap, previously estimated at EUR 400,000, would be closed with the help of sponsors. “In my understanding, the aim of a sponsorship relationship should always be that it is long-term and not necessarily attached to the people involved,” Rietzke now clarified.
