GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — The chairman of German soccer club Schalke stepped down Tuesday after bowing to increasing pressure following a huge outbreak of coronavirus infections at one of his company’s slaughterhouses.
Schalke fans had been calling for 64-year-old billionaire Clemens Tönnies’s resignation since he made racist comments about Africans at a public meeting in Paderborn last August.
Tönnies leaves after 26 years on the board of the Bundesliga club and 19 as chairman.
On Saturday, up to 1,500 Schalke supporters formed a socially distanced human chain near the club’s stadium to protest against its management as the team slumped to a 4-0 loss to Freiburg.