Achim Stocker, born in 1935 and dead in 2009, was the president who watched Teletext. No one shaped the office in Freiburg more. A civil servant and tax director with a huge passion for football, he took over the top post in 1972 and once even mortgaged his own house to help the club out of financial trouble.
Stocker and the left-leaning football teacher Finke formed one of German football’s great unlikely success partnerships. Finke helped out in the office; Stocker was allowed to attend Sunday video analysis. As the years passed, however, the heart patient found trips to the stadium too exhausting and began following the matches at home on Teletext, where only the goals appeared.
He died on November 1, 2009, on a Bundesliga Saturday.
