Cash-strapped Bundesliga club Kaiserslautern have revealed that they are selling their stadium to repay debts,but the club admmitted that the deal was only workable if they avoided relegation.
The club confirmed that their Fritz-Walter stadium, would be bought by a specially-created company in which the city, the region and local banks would take shares. Kaiserslautern would then pay rent to use the stadium.
However, such is the extent of their financial predicament that were the club to be relegated they would not be granted a licence to continue trading as a football club. Kaiserslautern are bottom of the Bundesliga but lie only two points adrift of safety.
‘I am very happy that this company (which will take over the stadium) could be founded,’ said Jaeggi.
‘But if we wereto be relegated, we would almost certainly not get a licence.’
Kaiserslautern’s problems started when with the collapse last year of KirchMedia, which held the television rights for the Bundesliga. Their debts have been estimated at œ30million and their problems were exacerbated last month when they were ordered last month to pay œ8million in back taxes
