It’s an eventful week for the third division soccer team SpVgg Unterhaching: The disillusioning 0-2 defeat at Energie Cottbus was followed by the release of coach Marc Unterberger on Sunday. At the same time, club president Manfred Schwabl and his son Markus, who is captain of the team and sports director of the club, presented the successor: Sven Bender, previously assistant coach, is moving into the managerial role, at least for the three games until the winter break. And on Thursday morning the cooperation with FC Bayern Munich was finally made official.
We will work closely together to identify, exchange and promote talent, and we will also enable trainers from the Unterhaching youth training center to work in internships on the Bayern campus. “Players from both clubs should be given the opportunity to change clubs internally as part of optimal, individual support,” says Thursday’s press release. One can assume that the move of junior national player Maurice Krattenmacher from SpVgg to Bayern and the subsequent loan to second division club SSV Ulm last summer is already a result of this cooperation, as is the transfer of Gibson Adu, 16, to Munich – he continues to play on loan at Haching.
However, the announcement of the cooperation at this time also raises questions. It’s been rumored for eight months, and we shouldn’t have had to wait that long for what’s in the announcement. It is still unclear what the true extent of the cooperation will be – there was talk of financial support for Unterhaching amounting to ten million euros for three years. Now there are statements from those responsible that the grant will be less than originally planned.
But the cooperation should only be marginally about money anyway. Haching’s sports director Markus Schwabl suggests that the suburbanites, who are in danger of relegation, can hope for fresh talent in the winter transfer window: “In the situation we are in now, you always have to talk about potential adjustments that you can make in the winter,” says Schwabl Jr. “It’s not out of the question that we could talk to Bayern about what options there might be. But that hasn’t happened yet.” A statement by Bayern sports director Max Eberl about the collaboration could certainly be interpreted in this direction: “SpVgg Unterhaching would like to establish itself as a down-to-earth, economically solid professional club in the medium term. We want to accompany the club on this path.”
If the Hachingers decide on Sven Bender as coach in the long term, there could even be a point deduction
None of this is an issue for the new head coach Sven Bender, as he emphasized on Thursday in the press conference before the landmark home game on Saturday (2 p.m.) against Hannover 96 II. He spent the whole week exclusively dealing with the next opponent, who, in 18th place in the table, is two points ahead of the Hachingers. That’s why he hasn’t given any thought to whether his commitment will actually end at Christmas. “We need the feeling of victory again to have the belief that we are good,” said the 35-year-old former professional. “We still have a long season ahead of us, so Saturday is the only thing that counts for now.”
According to Bender, SpVgg’s current situation reminds him of the difficult season with Borussia Dortmund in 2014/15, when they were in last place after 19 Bundesliga match days: “You have to put your ego aside and think positively, because positive energy has a big impact. Mistakes must be addressed, everything must serve the cause. That’s what I took with me back then,” says Bender.
Markus Schwabl says that they will decide during the winter break whether Sven Bender will continue as head coach. If the experiment with the interim coach continues, Haching is likely to be asked to pay again by the German Football Association (DFB) because Bender does not have the necessary UEFA Pro license. That was already the case with Unterberger; strangely enough, he only took his last written exams this week – after his dismissal. “If you decide to continue with Sven, there probably won’t be any special rules so that it’s free for us the second time,” jokes Markus Schwabl.
His father, President Manfred, is already in contact with the DFB to find out the opinion there. If the Hachingers decide on Bender, it could not only be expensive because the young coach still has a very long training path ahead of him. It is also possible that the DFB will even impose a point deduction. The association had already done that once at Türkgücü Munich. At the beginning of 2022, the two-point penalty was somewhat reduced because the club was already in bankruptcy proceedings. For Unterhaching in the relegation battle, a corresponding signal from the DFB would probably be an argument for at least providing Bender with a license holder.
The people of Haching are probably not easy to speak to in Frankfurt at the moment. Simply because the association actually wanted to send a delegation to the third division game on Saturday. The game against Hannover 96 II would have been a kind of final practical test for Unterberger. They now have to find another final solution at the DFB for the trainer, who has been highly praised in Unterhaching for years.
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