The Cologne club officially announced that the board of directors, with the consent of the joint committee, decided to dismiss the sports director Christian Keller and the head coach Struber from their positions with immediate effect. Thomas Kessler will take over sports affairs as the sports director. The new head coach is Vonkel, who has signed a contract with the club until the end of this season.

Christian Keller became the sports director of Cologne in April 2022. After the team was relegated in the summer of 2024, he appointed Struber as the new head coach, with the task of leading the team back to the Bundesliga. Now both have been dismissed, and assistant coach Ebel has also been dismissed.

Currently, Cologne ranks second with 55 points after 32 rounds of the Bundesliga, only 3 points ahead of the team behind. In the last 5 rounds, Cologne only got 5 points.