TSG and general manager Rettig part ways

A decisive factor in the decision to relieve Rettig of his duties is the planned realignment of responsibilities within the council, with which TSG plan to strengthen their guideline of the club’s anchored innovative strength, as well as intensively reinforce their ambitions in performance diagnostics. Within this realignment, Rettig was to continue his work in the areas of marketing, merchandise and sponsors, but hand over responsibilities of communications and sport to Dr. Görlich. This constellation furthermore meant that a chairman would not be necessary. Rettig was unwilling to go along with this concept.

"We want to document how important a structural, scientific and sustainable training routine is for us by anchoring the components within the chairmanship and at the same time expand the sporting area with an innovation component," explained TSG shareholder Dietmar Hopp. "It is particularly important for a small club like Hoffenheim to take innovative, creative and brave measures in order to keep playing a role in professional football amid times of substantial economic growth."

"Youth development at the highest level is necessary in order to ensure financial gaining's through transfer's and sporting success." In order to achieve this, according to Hopp, TSG will be required to implement and develop the newest training methods, as well as increase their usage of recorded data and he had hoped that "everyone was on board with the plan".

TSG has worked in this area with their youth teams up to the professional side for a long time now and together with their scientific and technology partners, they've initiated various developments. Especially the software manufacturer SAP, who became TSG's main sponsor in 2013, has established a leading role around the world in this area thanks to their in-depth developments.

Dr. Peter Görlich has been overseeing these programmes for some time now and will begin to bundle these activities within the general management. This includes the preparation, publishing and presentation of relevant studies, analyses and models. In accordance with all these changes, TSG set out to use their existing infrastructure more efficiently and successively expand it.

Dr. Görlich, a 48-year-old management and sports scientist, who was already in leading positions for the achtzehn99Reha GmbH as well as the achtzehn99 ACADEMY, will now aim his focus on the newly founded "Sport & Innovation" programme, as well as communications. Furthermore, for the time being, he will take on the other responsibilities that were previously covered by Peter Rettig.