The UK government would like to have 50+1 in English football

Hans-Joachim Watzke, the Borussia Dortmund CEO, talks about near-bankruptcy, Klopp and selling players

- Matt Ford

If you think back to the creditors' meeting 20 years ago, then it's a success that we're even here today at all," says the Borussia Dortmund chief executive, Hans-Joachim Watzke.

In March 2005, 444 investors in the Molsiris real-estate fund, which owned 94% of BVB's Westfalenstadion and had been leasing it back to the club for €17m a year, gathered to vote on a bailout to save the club from insolvency.

Nearly 95% of the creditors agreed with a proposed recovery plan, drawn up in part by Watzke, then the club treasurer, under which stadium rent payments would be deferred and BVB allowed to access a €43m cash deposit, money that would otherwise have been paid out to them. Dortmund were saved.

Watzke, who previously ran a medium-sized company producing protective gear for firefighters in his home town of Marsberg, became chief executive and would go on to pull the strings at BVB for 20 more years before announcing he would step down this autumn.

The 65-year-old has overseen back-to-back Bundesliga titles under Jürgen Klopp, three German Cup wins and two Champions League final appearances as Dortmund established themselves as the closest domestic rivals to Bayern Munich. But his tenure has also featured near misses on the pitch plus an almost deadly terrorist attack and the existential threat of the pandemic off it.

When we meet the top two in the Bundesliga are Bayern and the defending champions, Bayer Leverkusen, while Dortmund are languishing in mid-table.

"I'm annoyed we've lost the position of the second power in German football to Bayer Leverkusen, which we've always been able to claim for ourselves for 15 years," Watzke says, but he believes he is leaving with the club stronger than ever.

"Financially, I would say we have done almost everything right over the last 20 years," he says.

"With the exception of the three coronavirus years, we've been consistently in the black."