MARCH 12, 2006

A new boss for Hockenheim

The Hockenheim Ring is to have a new managing director with the announcement that Rene Jaeggi, the boss of the FC Kaiserslauten soccer team is to take on the role. The 57-year-old Swiss is under contract to Kaiserslautern until the end of the year but will then come in to try to sort out the mess at Hockenheim, where debts have reached $35m.

Jaeggi has a long record in sports management after studying in Basel and Tokyo. He worked for RJ Reynolds and then moved on to Duracell from 1973 to 1986 and was then named as head of Adidas. He stayed five years and then moved on to head the Romika shoe firm and sit on the board of the Head clothing company. In 1996 he became president of FC Basel and in 2002 was put in charge of FC Kaiserslautern. He helped the second club dig its way out of financial trouble.