Stuttgart among cash-strapped Bundesliga clubs seeking financial help

Teams struggling due to loss of matchday revenue following pandemic

Erling Haaland of Borussia Dortmund celebrates scoring against Schalke at Signal Iduna Park on May 16. Getty

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Haaland after scoring his second goal against Cologne. Getty

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Moenchengladbach's Breel Embolo celebrates scoring the opening goal against Cologne on March 11, the first game in Bundesliga history to be played without fans. AFP

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Bayern Munich players celebrate Joshua Kimmich's strike against Dortmund. Reuters

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Newly-promoted club VfB Stuttgart are the latest Bundesliga side looking for financial aid because of lost matchday revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Stuttgart finished runners-up in Germany's second division at the end of June to win promotion to the Bundesliga a year after being relegated.

The 2007 German champions are now among a number of established names seeking financial help.

"During the lockdown phase, we examined all the possibilities for economic stabilisation and... applied for funding in order to secure our liquidity," the club's finance officer Stefan Heim told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten and Stuttgarter Zeitung.

"This was one of the measures we took to ensure VfB's economic survival at a time when nobody could predict when and how things would continue in football."

Heim said Stuttgart applied for aid through the state-owned KfW Bank, reportedly seeking a loan of around €15 million (Dh62m).

Germany's clubs are counting the cost of lost revenue as the last nine rounds of matches in the top two tiers were played behind closed doors due to the pandemic.

Werder Bremen, who managed to stay in the Bundesliga, confirmed that they want a loan from the state-owned KfW Bank.

Schalke 04, who had debts of €198m before the pandemic, recently applied to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for a guarantee to secure a loan, reportedly worth around €40m.

Schalke lost around €2m of revenue for each of the four home games behind closed doors.

Even runners-up Borussia Dortmund are looking into ways of securing financial help from the state, according to magazine Der Spiegel.