Schalke 04 Football Club (abbreviated as "Schalke 04", in English: Schalke 04) was founded in 1904 and is located in the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a professional football club in Germany.
Schalke continued to perform excellently, frequently finishing in the top four in the years leading up to the establishment of the Bundesliga in 1963. These outstanding achievements made them one of the 16 clubs that qualified for the top league at that time. In the same season, Schalke also won the DFB-Pokal for the second time in their history.
Despite improvements in performance, the seeds of a major reversal had long been sown. Several players and officials from the team were accused of accepting bribes, and the widely publicized 1971 Bundesliga scandal involved Schalke deliberately losing 0-1 to Bielefeld in the 28th round on May 17. Multiple Schalke players received lifetime bans.
The second half of the 2023-24 season started with consecutive defeats. The growing turmoil within the club, exacerbated by the relationship between Wilmots, Geraz, and the team, intensified the difficult competitive situation. After a 0-3 loss to Magdeburg, Wilmots publicly criticized the team and head coach Geraz.