Schalke receive financial boost

Bundesliga giants Schalke 04 have received a much-vaunted financial boost after the city of Gelsenkirchen agreed to a €25.5 million investment in the club by its own energy service provider GEW.

The deal was sanctioned at a meeting of city councilors in the city hall on Thursday evening.

When the deal was first mooted several weeks ago, Schalke’s chairman Clemens Tonnies said the funds would be enough to see the financially-troubled club through to the end of the season.

The windfall should also alleviate the possible need for the sale of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, much to the relief of defender Marcelo Bordon.

Bordon was reported by the Bild newspaper to have said that it would be a good idea if Neuer were to be sold this winter, but he insists he was talking from a purely financial perspective.

“I didn’t say or mean that I am personally in favour of selling our goalkeeper, which is how it has been understood,” he said on his club’s website.

“Quite the opposite: If there is anything I would like on this issue, then it is to play together with Manu here at Schalke for as many years as possible.”