Kloten entering bad times
25 Apr 2012 | Krišjānis Koļesņičenkovs
Fetscherin makes strong allegations against Bircher and Kloten
On 10.February Kloten announced that 37-year old Adrian Fetscherin, the current Director of Sport Editorial at TeleClub would be taking over the club by the 2013/2014 season from current President Jürg Bircher. In the current deal between the two, in the first season, Fetscherin would take over as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer on 1.May, 2012 and the second phase would be Fetscherin taking over as majority shareholder and President of the Club for 2013/2014. The club targeted 2.6million francs that Bircher would cover 2 million francs leaving the club to Fetscherin a healthy club "with no skeletons in the closet."
When the National League published the clubs who received their license for the 2012/2013 season on 5.May, Kloten was left off the 20 clubs but were eligible under conditions set by the league. Six weeks later, the situation in Kloten took the turn for its worse, 17.April, Fetscherin confirms that he is leaving the club making huge, serious, concerning and damaging allegations about the club. Fetscherin said that Bircher was deliberate withholding important information from him and decided to take action against his company JUBE Holding AG to terminate the contract immanently. Fetscherin went on to say "The deliberate misrepresentation by Jürg Bircher with deceptions, lies, false and erroneous information, I can not tolerate it anymore. There is also no basics for the Kloten Flyers sustainability rehabilitate and maintain in the top Group of NLA." The JUBE Holding AG own 63% of the shares for Kloten, there are signs the company is in financial difficulties and meeting their payment obligations is limited. The interrelation and dependency of JUBE Holding AG in the existence of Kloten puts them in acute danger said Fetscherin.
Later in the day, "20 Minunten" got in touch with Bircher and of course he denied all allegations made by Fetscherin. During the interview, the interviewer asked "Are the Kloten Flyers in vital economic difficulties?" in which Bircher replied "We have always said openly the problems are none existent, therefore we received a license from the league." However, that isnt much of an argument since everybody gets a license from the league, however Bircher admitted so but they disclosed figures. In response to the allegations that the club was not going to be able to pay the wages of players, he said they would hold a press conference in the next few days to prove they were all lies. The final question during the interview revealed four options for the club, Sell your shares to a new investor, refurbish Kloten by Moratorium, let the Kloten Flyers go into bankruptcy, or go with your Group of companies into bankruptcy and Kloten gets a new owner in which Bircher replied "So? You forgot another option: we find a solution and it goes on as before."
Kloten never did hold that press conference proving the allegations Fetscherin made about not able to pay wages, in fact, on 24.April, the press conference at 12h00 confirmed that the club would not be able to pay their players wages for April. The Manager of National League Ueli Schwarz was informed about the situation of Kloten the same day and said the club has until 10.May to find and present a new investor.