VIENNA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - SK Sturm Graz failed to elect a new president at a turbulent annual general meeting on Tuesday as the club unveiled a €2 million ($2.3 million) hole in its finances that needs to be filled by next summer.
The Premier League team's vice president Karl Platzer
abruptly pulled out of the race to succeed Hannes Kartnig just
before Tuesday's meeting, saying in a statement that the club
had more debt than he had known before.
With no other candidates coming forward, Kartnig has agreed
to stay on as president of Sturm, who are languishing in seventh
place in the 10-team Premier League, at least until an emergency
general meeting to elect a new board.
The club's board will meet on Monday to discuss how to raise
the money it needs to keep running, said Adolf Klementschitsch,
the board member responsible for finances. The club's total debt
is about €5.7 million, he said.
At Tuesday's meeting auditor Peter Imre presented a
financial review of the club, which has spent heavily on
players, including France's Franck Silvestre, after its
Champions League campaign three years ago.
'The club needs a capital injection of around €2 million until the summer of 2006,' Klementschitsch said. 'It's
obvious that we need a restructuring plan, that we need to cut
costs.'
