Now league chairman Studhalter speaks: “The accusations are adventurous fantasies.”

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Blick: Mr. Studhalter, do you sleep with a clear conscience these days?
Philipp Stoethalshalter: Thanks for asking – yes, I do.

FC Luzern has reported you. The Public Prosecution Service has not yet initiated a procedure. However, the club accuses you of deliberately misleading the board of directors as CEO and president so that Bernhard Alpstaeg could come to power. Is that correct?
No, these are adventurous fantasies of people who have forgotten that the feuding shareholders reconciled when I resigned in February 2021. You rightly say: there are no proceedings against me. The attempts by certain circles to revive old, boxed-off stories despite all common sense do not change anything. This is hopeless and ultimately only hurts the FCL.

Did FC Luzern ever want to have the stadium all to themselves?
I was chairman until February 2021. I should have been informed of this interest if it ever existed. The fact is that there was no interest, not even close. Who should have paid the millions the FCL didn’t have? It was rather the other way around: instead of wanting to buy the stadium, shareholders Sieber, Schmid and Sawiris announced their resignation. In my opinion, taking responsibility looks different.

At the time you held various positions at FC Luzern – CEO, VRP and lawyer for Bernhard Alpstaeg. Conflicts of interest are inevitable, aren’t they?
No. My duties were announced. And no one ever came to me and said, You have to stop working so much for the FCL now. The people needed someone to run the business and also settle the constant arguments and provocations among the shareholders. Fortunately, the then FCL management was there to support me.

How is the contact with Bernhard Alpstaeg today? Her father is said to be good friends with him.
Bernhard Alpstaeg was dissatisfied with my partner’s work at the law firm and ended his mandate with her in May 2019. Since then, I have only had sporadic contact with him. You can think whatever you want about him, but without his financial support over the years, the FCL would no longer exist in its current form.

Can you really concentrate fully on your work, even though you are being attacked so intensely in the background?
Sometimes I have the feeling that certain circles in Lucerne are taking something seriously. Public criticism is part of football and you have to be able to live with it. The SFL has an excellent management team and in the committee we work with focus and mutual respect.

Did your colleagues in the committee expect an explanation from you or did you approach them on your own initiative?
I have informed my colleagues. You know: shareholder conflicts are a normal phenomenon in football, my colleagues are no longer bothered by that. They responded calmly accordingly.

You are the only candidate for league president. Do you do your job so well that people can’t ignore you?
You should ask this question to my colleagues. For me personally, I can say: I enjoy doing this job, because I have been passionate about football for years.

What is your motivation for the presidency and what do you want to achieve?
My goal is to relieve clubs outside of sports – for example in the field of ticketing, security or digitalization – by bundling these tasks. This is with the aim of easing the financial burden on the clubs. This allows them to concentrate even better on their core task, football – and that is ultimately in the interest of the fans.

What vision do you have for the competition and where do you want to go with the competition?
Our clubs make a major contribution on the field, but especially to society, and deserve respect for that. I would like to promote this further. And secondly, my personal ambition is to help our clubs achieve further international success.

If, contrary to expectations, proceedings were actually initiated against you, would you voluntarily resign as league chairman?
Let’s wait and see for now. My lawyer advised me to respond clearly to the attempts to denigrate issues that have long been resolved and checked off. I’ll take his advice and let him work on it now.

Source : Blick