Billionaire investor announces he is ´done´ funding Hamburg

Hamburg have been dealt a financial blow after billionaire shareholder Klaus-Michael Kuhne announced he is to stop backing the Bundesliga club due to industry fees now being on a “different level”.

Kuhne, 80, began investing in his local club in 2015 when he purchased a 7.5 per cent stake for €18.75million, while he also bought the naming rights for their stadium, seeing the previous name – Volksparkstadion – return.

It is estimated that the Kuhne + Nagel majority owner has invested about €60m in the club in total, helping ease their previous financial woes and secure player signings.

But Kuhne, who Forbes reports as being worth €13.1bn, has become unimpressed by the state of modern football, highlighting inflated fees and poor signings.

“[€60m is] a disproportionate amount of money,” Kuhne told Handelsblatt. “But the fees being spent in the industry now are on a different level altogether.

“This club has been through some difficult times. There have been so many changes and some transfers have been complete flops, so it’s obvious that you start getting concerned when you’ve invested as much money as I have.

“I’m done for the time being.”