In terms of sport, there was bad news for Hertha BSC after the successful relegation on Monday at the end of the week before the summer break. The A-Juniors lost their final against Borussia Dortmund 1:2 (1:1) despite being in the lead. The U19s of Berlin missed their second triumph after 2018.
There are currently numerous allegations that those responsible for the club are confronted with. The fact that they were all absent at the high point of the season in their own youth department, although the final took place on the Olympic grounds in the capital, could not extend the indictment by another chapter. The top management actually had more important things to do. The eagerly awaited general meeting took place in exhibition hall 20 on Sunday.
For Hertha, she had a pioneering character six days after relegation. The repeated request for the deselection of the management team could have brought the club into difficulties in the middle of the upcoming transfer period. However, it didn’t quite get that far. Among the 2,628 voting members who had to vote on each member of the presidency, there was broad agreement about the poor work of the officials. However, the necessary three-quarters majority was not achieved.
Interim President Thorsten Manske resigned despite the failed vote of no confidence. Although the members only voted 64.2 percent for his deselection, after the announcement, Manske took the consequences of the bad result and resigned from his post. The vice president only took over the management of the club on Tuesday after the resignation of President Gegenbauer. On the other hand, the other five board members Fabian Drescher, Anne Jiingermann, Peer Mock-Stürem, Ingmar Pering and Norbert Sauer, who achieved significantly better results, remain in office.
Before the meeting began at 11 a.m., some fans also expressed their protest against million-dollar investor Lars Windhorst. In front of the Berlin exhibition hall, they put up a huge banner with the words “Windhorst out!”. In the hall, too, there were strong expressions of displeasure against Windhorst and against Gegenbauer, who had been praised by Manske and who was not present after his resignation.
Several of those present criticized the Presidium for the sporting decline in recent years and complained about massive mismanagement. “We are the most embarrassing club in all of Germany,” said one member. Windhorst recently had a public argument with Gegenbauer in particular and spoke out in favor of the club boss being voted out of office because he considered his investment of 375 million euros to be burned.
A successor to Gegenbauer, who has been in office for 14 years, is to be elected at an extraordinary general meeting on June 26, but other personal details are already emerging. Torsten-Jörn Klein, head of the supervisory board, confirmed that he would not stand in the way of Robert Schäfer being appointed as the new head of management.
Asked by a member if he supported the 46-year-old’s appointment, Klein answered “yes” – and received boos from the plenum. The functionary, who has worked in Hanover and Düsseldorf in the past, is said to be a candidate for the post that has been vacant since Carsten Schmidt resigned last year.
Schäfer was already an applicant before Schmidt was appointed, who left Berlin again for private reasons. At present, Fredi Bobic (sport) and Ingo Schiller (finance) are also part of the management. Schiller will resign from his post in October.
Bobic prepared the members for more difficult times, but wants to fight for the recovery. “I have the strength and the will and the positivity to say, this club can do much more,” said the managing director in an impassioned speech. “The work will be much, much harder,” said the 50-year-old.
Bobic admitted that he was “guilty” of the bad situation with the rescue only in the Bundesliga relegation. But: “It was never my aim to play in the relegation zone.” Bobic announced again that he would have to achieve surpluses again in the upcoming transfer window. It is therefore important that he can work with a functioning presidency after the vote of no confidence that failed on Sunday.
Under his direction, not everything is “peace, joy, pancakes,” said Bobic. Nevertheless, he promotes a constructive cooperation. “If we don’t manage that, we’ll tear ourselves apart. Then another idiot will stand up here and tell you something,” he said about himself and his job as managing director.
