Cologne president resigns

Cologne president Wolfgang Overath has resigned with immediate effect at a general board meeting on Saturday.

Vice-presidents also step down with immediate effect

Cologne president Wolfgang Overath has resigned with immediate effect at a general board meeting on Saturday. It was announced recently that Overath would stand down when his current term ends in 2013. However, it has now emerged he will leave immediately along with the club's vice-presidents Jurgen Glowacz and Friedrich Neukirch. A statement released by the trio read: "At the end of today's member's meeting, we will be resigning from our positions as president and vice-presidents. "The decision was a tough one because Cologne is always close to our hearts, and will remain so. The burden over recent months has been very high for all of us."

Future

Cologne are currently 11th in the Bundesliga table on 16 points and Overath believes he has left the club in a better condition than when he took charge in 2004. The statement continued: "Cologne is set up well for the future. "The sporting management of director of sport Volker Finke and coach Stale Solbakken, who we appointed, are doing a great job and the team has enough potential. "We would like to wish our club and all Cologne fans a successful future and our successors the very best of luck. "We would like to thank everybody who has accompanied, supported and had faith in us throughout these seven years. "We would like to thank the fans - the lifeblood of this club. And we would like to thank the sponsors and businesses who have supported the club immensely."