The KURIER met Matthias Siems for an interview. He is planning an esports academy, the renovation of the Tivoli stadium and the ascent.
So this is him now. Bodily and in person. The ominous financier of FC Wacker, who doesn't want to be an investor but prefers to see himself as a “financially strong partner”.
The association had kept its name a secret for months and only talked about “Otto” internally, before it leaked out who is really hiding behind this pseudonym: Matthias Siems, offspring of a long-established, wealthy Hamburg merchant family who holds stakes in over 340 companies worldwide , as Wacker President Joachim Jamnig explains.
If you enter this name on Google, you will find quite a few Matthias Siems. This is the name of an ex-politician, a lawyer, a professional soldier, and a few others. Of course, there is no trace of Matthias Siems, who is now sitting in the Andreasstüberl in the Leipziger Hof and asking for a private audience, in the vastness of the World Wide Web. “We are also actively involved in hiding,” he says in an interview with the KURIER.
And it should stay that way. Matthias Siems does not want to be photographed during the interview. It is also important to him that no tape recordings are published. And Siems ( face known to the editors) makes it clear that such appearances will tend to remain the exception. “I'm not a man who likes to choose the stage.”
Is there a specific reason why you are suddenly available for interviews?
We have now been on board for a year and have agreed on the management board and the supervisory board that it would make sense for me to show myself and present my point of view. In the end, a lot has been brought into the club from outside. And a lot of it is not right.
For example?
For example, that I would have started and demanded promotion in the first year.
Daniel Bierofka has been the coach of FC Wacker since this season. Innsbruck are fighting to return to the Bundesliga.
Isn't that so?
I am a football fan, but not a football specialist. And that means that I can't judge whether the team has the capabilities to get into the Bundesliga. When I joined, I was told that the squad needed to be strengthened in order to move up. The development in the promotion race is a bit bizarre. It is more of a fortunate fact that we are still talking about Ascension now. In any case, I prefer it when things move forward in small steps. We have time, we are patient.
What actually drives a Hamburger to support an Austrian second division team?
To be honest, I didn't even think about having a football club in my portfolio. I wanted to follow the call of my friend and confidante Jens Duve (note: Chairman of the Supervisory Board of FC Wacker) and got to know Wacker and the team. They told me everything that has happened in the past and that they would be happy to have a partner who would increase the budget to get back into the Bundesliga. To which I replied: 'No, that's not in my head. “
How come?
Because I don't see myself as a football patron or sponsor. That's not my intention, I don't care. I'm not that fanatic about football either. But what I got on my mind quickly. “Man, with what I have achieved in my professional life so far, the world of football could be changed a little.”
What do you have in mind?
It's about establishing new business fields apart from football. The plan is to make these fields so profitable that they keep the football club alive and thereby make it completely independent of people like me. That's my goal: I come to go. I'm the one who has to go first because I'm no longer needed. Such is the perfect formula for an investor.
What can such business areas look like?
The development is clearly heading in the direction of esports and gaming. We are all aware that this market is growing faster than any other and that it is also more profitable than any other. Here in Innsbruck we want to set up an esports academy that gives professional lessons to become a professional gamer. I believe that e-sports can relatively easily acquire the millions that you need for professional operations in the Bundesliga. And if we have a pilot project here in Innsbruck that has been established in three or four years, then we can set up a franchise model. That is the business model that I have in mind.
Recently there were also reports about an infrastructure project around the Tivoli stadium.
We have already submitted plans to politicians that we would like to optimize and redesign the stadium.
What should that look like in concrete terms?
We would like to build 1000 student apartments on the area around the Tivoli Stadium, with a square meter price of less than 10 euros. And we would like to permanently bring the area to life and play with it. We believe that this could be a great concept, especially because we want to build everything from sustainable materials, namely wood. This could be a unicorn project. This infrastructure project is now running independently from FC Wacker.
Speaking of FC Wacker: How should, how will the club look in ten years?
I imagine FC Wacker as a seasoned Bundesliga club that has become known nationwide because it has become financially independent through the development of new business areas in e-sports. This is the unicorn project that e-sports can finance professional football.
And do you want to stay on board that long?
My time frame is eight to twelve years. All investments that I have worldwide run over this time horizon. I stand for sustainability – you can't build that up in two or three years. From the eighth year onwards, if you haven't made it by then, you have to give up.
