He has no function, but he still has an influence: Erich Vogel twirls with the GC women. That causes unrest. The 85-year-old could soon even take on an official position.
After three years it’s over: Lara Dickenmann, pictured still as an active player, has resigned as general manager of the GC women.
Reuters
Lara Dickenmann was the face of GC women’s football for three years. At the beginning of the week there was a big bang: Dickenmann is giving up her job as general manager of the GC women and is leaving the club with immediate effect. The justification in Tuesday’s communiqué is dry. “Due to different opinions about their leadership, I decided to end the collaboration with GC Frauenfussball AG,” the 38-year-old is quoted as saying. What happened?
Dickenmann does not want to comment further. If you investigate the causes around the club, you will soon come across a well-known name. Erich Vogel is obviously in the orbit of women’s football, and anyone who knows him knows that he is not content with the position of observer, but rather likes to exert influence.
Not only is he at every game, he was also at the women’s training camp in January. In an interview with the NZZ in February, Vogel said: “I advise, among others, Heinz Spross, who is involved with the GC women, and have also created three thick dossiers about all the games and every player.” This can be seen as support – or as interference. It is definitely an intensive examination of the matter, especially for an outsider.
Erich Vogel was already planning the change at GC
Vogel was almost everything at GC: coach, sports director, vice president, and when he wasn’t in office, he worked as a whisperer and string puller behind the scenes – after the men, now with the women.
His interest in women’s football is not new: Vogel already developed a twelve-page concept in 2020 with the aim of quickly advancing women’s football at the Grasshoppers. Vogel wanted to change staff, appoint new trainers and install a new president, but the radical change failed. Those responsible in the GC football section went against the grain and stopped Vogel’s initiative, who was already running independently at the time.
There has been a new project since last summer: the women’s department broke away from men’s football and its own working group was founded. Behind this is Heinz Spross as investor and chairman of the board of directors. The White Label patrons’ association he founded is trying to find additional sponsors.
Spross was connected to GC throughout his life through his family; his uncle Werner H. Spross financed the club for decades. In January 2019 there was a break: Heinz Spross sold his shares when the Chinese took over. It was hoped that Erich Vogel would also fade into the background with him. But Vogel is a close contact and advisor to Heinz Spross, who supports him even if he has no mandate.
In 2021, women’s football at GC was strengthened: Lara Dickenmann came as general manager, a proven specialist. She won the Champions League twice as a player, studied economics and has a master’s degree in general management. In the “Blick” Dickenmann said about the reasons for the split from the men: “Nobody in the GC football section was waiting for women’s football and that the project would be affiliated with it.”
By separating from men, women were promised more independence, secure financing and further steps in professionalization. What was probably underestimated: that Heinz Spross’s financial commitment would not exist without the interference of Erich Vogel.
Heinz Spross does not want to comment on Lara Dickenmann’s departure and refers to Geri Aebi, both a member of the board of directors of GC Frauenfussball AG and a member of the GC central board. Aebi says he was surprised by Dickenmann’s resignation and that it caught the club off guard, especially since they are in the middle of preparations and squad planning for next season.
There were different opinions on some points, for example on the budget, where Dickenmann had “bigger ambitions”, but nothing indicated irreconcilable differences. He doesn’t know anything more about problems with Vogel.
Aebi says: “Erich Vogel has been enthusiastic about women’s football for many years. It’s his big old age hobby.” Vogel does not have an official function, and as far as he knows, this is not planned, especially not in the long term. We are now looking for a successor for Dickenmann as quickly as possible, but of course this won’t happen overnight.
Vogel’s “criminal energy”.
Vogel is 85 years old, Heinz Spross is 75. They represent a men’s football world from a different time. Vogel said in the NZZ interview: “In football, as in business, there is bribery and cheating. My sharp mind, my intangible values and my criminal energy helped me not to be duped and appear as a loser. How does this work together with women’s football, which sees itself as a young, fresh alternative to men’s football? With the diversity and the values that women’s football aggressively propagates?
The departure of Lara Dickenmann causes turbulence at GC at a time when they are anxious to finally bring calm to the club. That shouldn’t please those in charge at Los Angeles FC, the owner of the men’s club. Even if Americans are not structurally connected to women, they know full well that the discord is damaging to the brand.
An interim solution for Lara Dickenmann seems to have been found. Erich Vogel should take over the business and look for a new person in charge. When asked, Vogel does not want to comment on what is going on at the club, but he confirms that he will have a conversation with Heinz Spross on Monday about a temporary engagement.