Schalke 04 dismiss Magath

The supervisory board of German Bundesliga side FC Schalke 04 met early yesterday and decided to relieve Felix Magath of his positions as coach, director of sports and management board member within the club. Originally it had been planned that Magath would meet the supervisory board, but Magath called off his attendence as he seemed to know what was in store for him.

And the timing does surprise many as Schalke have reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League, the German Cup final, but are only tenth in the Bundesliga. But off field matters were behind the sacking.

Schalke chairman Clemens Tonnies said after the meeting there were "very good reasons" for the move, but he did not specify what they were. And added, "We will not make these public as a legal battle is now ahead of us. But we are very relaxed about this process. What we have decided is a good result for Schalke."

And now the whole story could get murky with the club trying to frame their coach in such a way that they will not have to make the necessary pay-off as Magath had a contract running until 2013 with the Ruhr valley team. Magath meanwhile has resigned from the club citing differences of opinion, while he is said to have a clause in his contract that he can resign and still get paid compensation in the region of 12 million Euros.

The club has meanwhile named a new coach in former Schalke coach Ralf Rangnick, who'll join the club on Monday and will sign a contract until summer 2014. Rangnick had earlier coached Schalke from September 2004 to December 2005 and many thought at the time that this was a wrong decision.