Dear lily fans, partners & friends,
Unfortunately, the season didn’t end the way we wanted it to before the season started. At the end of the previous matchday it is clear that we will be competing in the 2nd league again next year. We were all longing for the Bundesliga and were looking forward to the season in which we deserved promotion after two fantastic years in the second division under coach Torsten Lieberknecht. Of course, everyone inside and outside the club was aware that it would be a challenging Bundesliga season. But it’s one thing to prepare for it. The other thing is to feel the gravity of the task firsthand.
The season so far has shown that our team doesn’t give up and has mostly thrown everything into the balance in terms of fighting. Despite this long winless streak, the team has remained intact and has picked itself up again and again. In the end, however, it remains sober to say that we deserved to be relegated. Unlike in previous years, this time we did not manage to overperform relative to our economic possibilities. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, we were unable to get into a proper sporting flow throughout the season.
As part of our overall sporting analysis, we must and will carefully analyse the reasons for the relegation internally. And as we do after every season, we work together to find out what could have gone better. We definitely didn’t do everything right this season, and we in the presidium are also self-critical of ourselves.
We can completely understand that some people are frustrated by the low point yield. We are too. We are all the more impressed by the sensitivity of the fans, partners and sponsors who support us with this passion and loyalty throughout the entire season because they know that the Bundesliga is something special for the Lilies. The majority of our followers can correctly assess and classify the situation – as they did after the recent game against Heidenheim. And even if something goes wrong, like after the Augsburg home game, the fan scene’s internal reappraisal works. We can only take our hats off to that.
This unity and solidarity are a valuable asset that we must maintain. Because the coming second division season will also be challenging. First of all, we want to finish the season cleanly together and collect as many points as possible. And then, with the right conclusions from the current Bundesliga season, we will build on the overall positive development of the past few years.
Your Presidium
