All the best, Wolfgang Arnold!

Wolfgang has been married to his wife Jutta since 1973. She has also been involved with the sports club for many years, always offering advice and support during his time as an official, and always having his back. As befits a SV 98 family, the entire wedding party went to the stadium the day after the wedding. SV 98 was the newly crowned South German champion and played a 2-2 draw against Rot-Weiß Essen in the promotion round – a match that is still fresh in the memory of all those who witnessed it. The Arnold couple have three adopted children (two boys, one girl), who are now long grown up.

Wolfgang has been involved with the sports club since childhood. His father was an active field handball player, and the family regularly attended games and then went to Heinrich Jung’s restaurant in the club. Wolfgang Arnold joined SV 98 in 1990 as a football father and coach of the F-youth team. He soon became deputy youth director and (as he was known for his meticulous work as a qualified business teacher) auditor. This brought him to the attention of the club, and in 1996, he was appointed to the executive board, succeeding Jochen Woebke.

Since then, he has served as chairman of the amateur departments (and the fan and support department). He still holds this position today and will retire on October 21st of this year due to age. „At some point, you have to make room for younger talent and bring about a generational change,“ he says. He always held this position dutifully and with dedicated composure. Wolfgang was never the big man in the spotlight, but rather a quiet creator who, like a plate acrobat in a variety show, always kept the sometimes divergent interests of the amateur departments in balance. He is the club’s „loyal Eckart,“ a loyal man you can always rely on, and has done almost everything there is to do at the club: from setting up the goal wall at the stadium festival to helping organise the blue-and-white Saturday in the city centre to selling fan merchandise from a rickety trailer in the run-up to Christmas on Luisenplatz, where we raised 10,000 Deutschmarks at the end of the 1990s (an unimaginable sum at the time).

His worst period was the years of near-insolvency starting in 2007, when the tax authorities also came to the Arnolds‘ home. But, as always, every bad thing has its good side: Wolfgang remains impressed by the response from the city community at the time and the resulting image change of SV 98. His best experience, by far, was the famous „Miracle of Bielefeld,“ which he still looks back on with enthusiasm.

Even after leaving office, Wolfgang will remain loyal to the sports club, be a fan, drop by from time to time as a training spectator, and offer advice and support whenever needed.

Dear Wolfgang, thank you very much and all the best, and hopefully in the best of health!

Text: Club History Department