Latest news with #Pokal
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
VfB Stuttgart join Bayer Leverkusen in the race for Manchester City's James McAtee
Sky Germany reports that VfB Stuttgart have added Manchester City's James McAtee to their shortlist, likely as a potential replacement for Enzo Millot. Stuttgart are monitoring several different profiles in the position, with McAtee being a new one added. This is likely due to the future of Enzo Millot being up in the air. The DFB-Pokal winner has been linked with a move away this summer for several months now, and despite a poor season, Millot showed his level in the Pokal final, where he scored twice against Arminia Bielefeld. Advertisement However, Stuttgart are not the only Bundesliga side interested. Eintracht Frankfurt are said to have made an enquiry, while Bayer Leverkusen are also interested. die Werkself have been linked with McAtee as a potential replacement for Florian Wirtz. The 22-year-old is said to be interested in the chance of playing in the Bundesliga. McAtee has mainly been a peripheral figure for City this season, playing 27 times in all competitions and scoring seven times. GGFN | Jack Meenan
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
📊 Stuttgart hit Pokal milestone during first-half blitz in Berlin
Stuttgart will count their lucky stars in Berlin after Die Schwaben may have placed one hand on a piece of silverware as they lead 3-0 in the capital at the halftime a night when Sebastian Hoeneß and company look to secure their first major honour since 2006/07, star striker Nick Woltemade made no mistake in the penalty area when he cooly finished past Jonas Kersken to set Stuttgart away inside the opening 15 minutes. But it could have all been different thus far at the Olympiastadion when Bielefeld's Noah-Joel Sarenren-Bazee struck the crossbar with the goal gaping from inside six yards after a storming run from Joel Grodowski. Soon after Woltemade's opener, Stuttgart broke freely through Deniz Undav before he squared to Enzo Millot to double their advantage. 28 - VfB Stuttgart led 3-0 after 28 minutes - never before had a club scored three goals so early in a DFB Cup final. Kickstart. #DSCVfB #DFBPokalfinale — OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) May 24, 2025 Just minutes later, Undav would get his name on the scoresheet after being slipped through on goal by Angelo Stiller to pad the scoreline inside 30 minutes, making Stuttgart the first club to score three goals in a Pokal final in such rapid fashion. Can Hoeneß's troops see out the result for a much-needed trophy haul? 📸 TOBIAS SCHWARZ - AFP or licensors
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bayern also lift Frauen-Bundesliga trophy
While Vincent Kompany won the Bundesliga in his first season as Bayern coach, the women's team has seen its most successful campaign to date. Bayern Frauen won the domestic double for the first time in their history. Lea Schüller's hat-trick against Werder Bremen helped Alexander Straus' team to win the Pokal earlier this month. That was only the second cup triumph in Bayern's history, and a first in 13 years. Meanwhile, they won the league for the third successive season this term. On Sunday, they received the trophy after a 3-0 victory over SGS Essen in the final game of the season. Bayern only lost once in the league this season, and they end the season with an eight-point lead over former Frauen-Bundesliga giants VfL Wolfsburg. However, they bow out of Europe in the first knockout stage after a 6-1 aggregate defeat to Lyon.
Forbes
05-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Arminia Bielefed: Could The DFB Pokal Run Lead To A Great Future?
'Leave the jersey in a better' or 'Champions do extra' are just two of several core principles that govern one of the most successful sports teams in the world, the All-Blacks New Zealand rugby team. 'Like the All-Blacks, we want to question everything,' Arminia Bielefeld chief commercial director Christoph Wortmann said. They are also the slogans used typically by startups. A comparison that according to Wortmann fits well when describing an Arminia Bielefeld side that has made international headlines by reaching the DFB Pokal final by beating last year's champions Bayer Leverkusen earlier this month. 'We had to rebuild everything,' Wortmann said when talking about the early days of being in his current position. 'We wanted to shape the club actively and not just administer,' Wortmann said. What exactly does that mean? 'The basis of economic growth is to strengthen our core business football in the medium-term,' Wortmann added. 'Growth is our only chance. More interest in the club increases our growth and strengthens our core business.' It is a positive spiral that is now accelerated through the Pokal run. To capitalize on the club's success, Wortmann and his team have put together an economic growth plan for merchandizing, ticketing, sponsoring, squad value management, women's football, and digitalization. Founded in 1905, Bielefeld has always had a tumultuous history. But after being relegated from the Bundesliga following the 2021/22 season, Bielefeld went straight down to the 3. Liga following a horrendous 2. Bundesliga campaign in 2022/23. Then in 2023/24, the club's first season in the third division, Arminia flirted with relegation again but ultimately the club was able to fight off relegation. That first season in the 3. Liga, after back-to-back relegations, was, in particular, difficult. 'When we applied for the third division licence, we had to bridge a significant financial gap,' Wortmann said. 'I then had to go to a special hearing at the German Football Federation (DFB) to explain to them how we were going to finance the next season.' Context here is important. The drop from the 2. Bundesliga to the 3. Liga is significant in terms of finances. Although a fully federal division, the third division in German football isn't governed by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) but the DFB. As such, it doesn't participate in the significant television money the first two divisions receive every single season. 'The third division isn't built to make money,' Wortmann said. To receive the licence, Wortmann worked feverishly to fill financial holes and ensure the DFB bosses that the club could survive playing in the third division. 'We brought forward future earnings,' Wortmann. 'But that's money that then will be missing down the road.' This is important context when discussing what Arminia's DFB Pokal run means for the club. According to Gegenpressing, Bielefeld's run to the semifinal has already earned the club €7.5 million ($8.5 million). Reaching the final guarantees another €2.88 million ($3.27 million), which would grow to €4.32 million ($4.9 million) should Bielefeld win the final. The two final participants also receive a share of the ticket sales. As a result, the income from the Pokal could grow to around €12 million ($13.6 million). Those are enormous sums for a side. Sums that could grow even further should Bielefeld win the final and, as a result, qualify for the Europa League group stage. According to Swiss Ramble, German sides Eintracht Frankfurt earned €21.3 million ($24.2 million) and Hoffenheim €12.1 million ($13.75 million) from playing in the league stage of Europe's secondary cup competition this season. Bielefeld with its infrastructure and stadium would probably be closer to Hoffenheim's numbers. Not that the club has even considered the possibility of playing in Europe. 'We are not thinking about Europe,' Wortmann said. 'The only thing we are thinking about is Berlin.' Although reality did hit home after UEFA requested documents for a potential licence to play in Europe this month. It speaks for the decision-makers in Bielefeld that the club is only planning with what has already been earned. 'The basis for everything is growth,' Wortmann said. 'Also, rather than the financials, it was more important to rebuild confidence in the brand. To achieve that, we always look to remain authentic, and down-to-earth. As part of that strategy, Wortmann, director of sport Michael Mutzel, head coach Mitch Kniat and the players have called season ticket holders to explain to them the club's plans. On top of that, the club also organized townhall meetings for fans, players and staff visited fan clubs. All that with one goal, to rebuild trust in the club's brand. That has been the case. Even before the run to the DFB Pokal final, there has been a real sense of hype around the club in Bielefeld. According to Die Falsche 9, Bielefeld ranks 31st in Germany with 20,758 home spectators and 30th with 1,902 travelling fans per game. 'Our sponsoring and merchandise sales are on par with 2. Bundesliga clubs,' Wortmann said. 'In fact, in this 3. Liga season we achieved numbers in merchandize and ticketing that we haven't seen before in the 120-year history of the club. Unlike two years ago, it wasn't an issue to receive the licence for the third and second division.' That doesn't mean the DFB Pokal money was necessarily a bonus. 'We used some of that money to plug holes from the past,' Wortmann said. 'But it also allowed us to invest in our infrastructure.' The club used some of the money to register a second team that will play as the club's U21 in the Oberliga (fifth division). 'We want to develop our own talents or bring them up to a professional level,' Wortmann said. 'Reestablishing a second team was very important for that to happen.' Bringing back a reserve side was an essential step for the club. It underlined Arminia's commitment to field a team with whom fans from the region can identify. There are also soft factors that come with the club going deep in the DFB Pokal. 'We received far more international attention,' Wortmann said. 'It will certainly accelerate the growth of the club's brand both at home and abroad.' Without a doubt, reaching the cup final of Europe's biggest economy helps. But before the club plays in Berlin against VfB Stuttgart, there is also one other big goal the club would like to achieve. Die Arminia is currently second in the 3. Liga with a four-point gap to the relegation playoff spot. With a significantly better goal differential than third-placed Saarbrücken, Arminia could go up as early as next weekend. 'The success in the DFB Pokal gives us a much stronger basis in the second division,' Wortmann said. At that point, Wortmann tries to slow down expectations, though. 'Let's wait and see what happens over the next couple of games,' Wortmann said. 'We have a great foundation, but we are not quite there yet.' In that regard, Wortmann keeps it with another All-Black core principle: 'sweep the sheds.' This means to be humble. The players playing for the All-Blacks are told never to let the success get to their heads. Overall, however, it is hard not to be optimistic about Bielefeld's future. A strong league campaign and a long run in the DFB Pokal have put the club back on solid financial footing. The rest seems to be a bonus, and who knows, perhaps could lead to a great future.
Daily Mail
26-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Can the new £450 million Ikea flagship save Oxford Street?
This Thursday Peter Jelkeby will do something that will make or break his career and seal the fate of the best-known high street in Europe. He will open a 5,800 sq m, £450 million Ikea store in Oxford Street in central London. 'Oxford Street is still an icon. It's unique. We see potential,' the UK boss of the Swedish homeware giant tells me as he prepares to check that the Billy bookcases and Pokal glasses are freshly dusted and lined up straight, ready for the big day. Icon? Potential? I wonder if he's had too many meatballs for lunch and needs a little lie down. Exiting Tottenham Court Road tube and heading west earlier, I passed tacky shops selling mini plastic Big Bens, vapes and American hard candy called Jawbreakers. At least three storefronts were boarded up with bailiffs' notices. The M&S I called in at was so old it was almost Soviet. Even the people whose job it is to talk up the nation's high street concede there has been decline. 'We were getting a poor reputation,' says Dee Corsi, the CEO of New West End Company, which represents local businesses. Others have used stronger words. After the demise of Topshop, which drew shoppers from New York, and the collapse of the once-dependable House of Fraser and Debenhams department stores, Stuart Machin, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, predicted that without urgent investment Oxford Street was 'destined for extinction'. So why is Jelkeby, who blurs the background in his video interviews lest anyone spots an item that isn't from Ikea, beaming like he has won the retail lottery? The 62-year-old Swede senses consumers have maxed out on online shopping – half of Ikea's sales in London are online, more than in any other city in which the retailer operates – and are ready to head back to destination shopping streets. 'People want to try out the sofa, look at the fabric, sit on the chair, look at the surface of a kitchen worktop,' he says. He will be giving Londoners plenty of new reasons to walk under Ikea's jaunty blue and yellow awning into what was once Topshop. The first thing they will see are 'roomsets curated by Londoners'. He won't say who but, in homage to the building's past – and the stampede she caused when posing in the store windows in a red dress for her first Topshop collection in 2007 – I'm hoping for Kate Moss 's take on an Ikea bedroom (with an en-suite disco). Designers will be on hand to help imagine any room you fancy. There will be a live demonstration kitchen for cooking events, which are sure to make you hungry enough to head to the 130-seat café called – this being Ikea's European flagship – the Swedish Deli. Six thousand homeware items will be on show, just over half of which you will be able to take away. You can get everything else delivered; or click and collect it later, either in the Oxford Street store or at four other locations in central London. 'It's going to be fun,' Jelkeby promises. (Provided, that is, you can avoid the dreaded checkout queues that can leave Ikea shoppers with PTSD.) Fun is certainly what Oxford Street needs after a wretched decade. As the big names departed, footfall on the main drag and its environs slumped by a quarter between 2019 and 2024. Now there are signs it might, just might, be recovering some of its swagger. It is not only Ikea. Corsi, who as a teenager took the tube to Oxford Circus and 'went into all the shops to get the best clothes to show my friends', rattles off the new brands her teenage daughter now visits, or can't wait to when they open: Rituals (cosmetics); Kurt Geiger (shoes); Abercrombie & Fitch (preppy US fashion); HMV (which returned to the site of its original store in 2023); Superdry (whose flagship is opposite Bond Street tube); Space NK (beauty); Puma (athleisure and sports); Under Armour (for sporty types out to look like Anthony Joshua); and Mango (Spanish style for those who consider Zara too common). There are more openings than just new shops. The reassuringly expensive Third Space fitness chain is launching a 2,800 sq m gym and spa in Elephant – the new name for the former House of Fraser site, currently undergoing a £132 million redevelopment. Crazy-golf-for-drunk-people outfit Swingers has putted its way into the building formerly occupied by BHS, while Moco, a modern art museum, has opened its third European gallery at the Marble Arch end of the street, joining Frameless, an immersive art installation. Today only 60 per cent of what's on offer in Oxford Street is shopping; the rest is made up of experiences, arts and entertainment. The result of all the new openings is that vacancy rates on Oxford Street dropped to 1.35 per cent at the end of last year – the lowest rate since the first quarter of 2019, figures from Savills show. Prime rents were up by 25 per cent year-on-year in 2024. The new investors have been attracted by positive structural changes – one that was easily predicted, one a total surprise and one that involved bashing down doors. The completion of the Elizabeth Line has made Oxford Street the best-connected shopping destination in Europe. It has two stations on the new line: Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street. Meanwhile, as firms increasingly abandon WFH, millions of square metres of new office space is being built in and around Oxford Circus. Hundreds of thousands of workers now commute to the area daily. Westminster Council has also clamped down on landlords who sublet premises to tatty souvenir and candy stores. Many landlords were subleasing to avoid liability for business rates – this falls on the tenant – but often occupants failed to pay. 'There were a lot of raids to make it a hostile environment,' says Corsi. Despite green shoots, nobody is taking recovery for granted. Retailers know more needs to be done. Corsi wants a government rethink on tax-free shopping. Ending the perk for tourists cost West End retailers around £640 million last year, up from £400 million in 2023. 'Visitors do not spend as much as they used to. It is getting worse all the time,' she tells me, adjusting her Prada glasses, which (whisper it) are from Bond Street. What other West End ploys are retailers betting on? Marks & Spencer's operations director Sacha Berendji, who is behind the upcoming redevelopment of its flagship at Marble Arch after finally getting planning permission to demolish the existing building, hopes tech will help. 'Technology will play a huge part in ensuring customers can shop the way they want.' It's early days but some retailers are experimenting with internet- and AI-enabled smartscreens to help customers to create an entire new wardrobe of styles without so much as leaving the changing room. Philip Bourchier O'Ferrall – whose name alone entitles him to the glass of wine he is having at 4.30pm when we meet near Centrepoint, to the east end of Oxford Street – wants to see more entertainment and more food. He runs the Outernet, an immersive cultural experience near Tottenham Court Road station, which has become the most visited free public entertainment space in Britain with 70 million visitors last year. 'We need more festivals, more cultural experiences for people to share – everything from Pride to Eid. There aren't enough cafés and restaurants. We need partnerships with small businesses that would not normally get a leg-up, not a new Wetherspoons.' He's putting his own beans on the line, having signed up Bar Italia, the iconic coffee bar in nearby Soho, to open an outlet for the caffeine-deprived in the Outernet. Perhaps the last word on the vexed question of what is to become of Britain's high street should go to the retailer on it that, more than any other, has reinvented itself to stay relevant. Selfridges could have become a dusty afterthought like most department stores, but has kept innovating, unveiling collaborations with brands as varied as Jellycat and Golden Goose, and partnerships with celebrities such as Usher, who launched a pop-up last month selling merch for his latest tour. There's even a car boot sale in the multistorey car park every May. Maeve Wall, Selfridges' executive director of retail, says, 'You have to change constantly, to create experiences and give people a new reason to come back and make memories. If you stand still you die.' If Ikea's Jelkeby can repeat Wall's trick, we'll all soon be heading back up West. A West End story 1864 The first John Lewis store opens at 132 Oxford Street, the same site its flagship still occupies. 1909 US entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge (right) founds Selfridges in the Daniel Burnham-designed hall at 400 Oxford Street. 1930 M&S opens its first Oxford Street store at Orchard House. In 2024, the brand announced it will be demolished and redeveloped. 1940 A single night of the Blitz takes out Selfridges, John Lewis (below), Peter Robinson and Bourne & Hollingsworth. 1959 The first Christmas lights display is installed on Oxford Street. 1960 John Lewis's flagship store is unveiled as a piece of smart modernism, 20 years after the old building perished in the Blitz. 1964 Peter Robinson opens a branch of new brand Topshop at its Oxford Circus site. 2001 The street's oldest department store, DH Evans, rebrands as House of Fraser. In January 2022 it closes its doors. 2021 Topshop's flagship store shuts 57 years after beginning in the basement. An Ikea will take its place. 2023 Music giant HMV returns to its original site at 373 Oxford Street after closing it four years earlier.
