What On Earth Is Going On At Hertha Berlin?

germany is the most successful footballing nation in europe berlin is germany's capital and largest city and herta is the biggest club in berlin with a stadium that is the same size as old trafford theoretically therefore hurt a berlin ought to be absolute beasts within the bundesliga and serial winners of the champions league in reality herta have never won the bundesliga let alone the champions league they came within moments of getting relegated this season they have more empty seats than any other bundesliga team and the club is in crisis herta have had many false dawns over the years by virtue of their status as the leading club in the german capital along with an assumption that at some stage surely things would click and the club would realize its potential but time after time that assumption has proven to be false that status has also historically safeguarded herze from total collapse when things have got really bad ensuring that investors would always see potential in them as the unrivaled top dogs in berlin and as the ultimate sleeping giants within the german game but that too is no longer the case indeed that status is not just under threat some might argue that in the space of just three short years it has rather extraordinarily been lost both due to the rise of union berlin who finished seventh last season and fifth this season following their promotion to the bundesliga in 2020 qualifying for european football on both occasions and due to the demise of several even more storied and successful clubs than herter in recent years whether that be schalke hamburg or nuremberg all of whom have massive and far less divided catchment areas than hurter thus making them arguably even bigger sleeping giants all of that means that herta berlin is a club which is currently on the precipice following years of chronic mismanagement capable either of turning things around over these next few years and finally starting to realize some of that undoubted potential or of dropping out of the bundesliga as they very nearly did this season falling permanently behind union in virtually every way shape and form imaginable and quite possibly never to return all of the above combined with some pretty seismic happenings at the club over the past week meant that it seemed like a pretty good time to answer some of your calls for me to make a video taking a deep dive into what is going on at herter berlin so sit back relax and join me on a journey to the famously fragmented but rarely uneventful german capital which is often wrongly accused of lacking a passion for football as we hone in on the oldest club in the bundesliga exploring how they have become germany's biggest meme club why supporters have been left feeling so disillusioned and what the future might hold for her to bsc herta just like the city that the club calls home has always been in a bit of a state of flux in 1963 when the bundesliga was created herta were among the league's 16 founding members but despite avoiding relegation in the league's first two seasons and even qualifying for the intercity's first cup by virtue of berlin being a major host of international trade fairs herta had their bundesliga licence revoked and were subjected to an enforced relegation to the region oligar berlin in 1965 after they were caught bribing players by breaking the league's salary cap to persuade them to play in berlin something that was not easily done at the time given that berlin was an isolated enclave within the soviet occupied east germany which became even less attractive to players following the erection of the berlin wall that led to a crisis not only a hurter who failed to win promotion by the playoffs the following season but also for the bundesliga itself whilst west berlin was not west germany's capital unlike east berlin which was the capital of the ddr the bundesliga still wanted representation from the nation's largest city and former capital therefore instead of just promoting the strongest regular league assad from the previous season to replace hutter the league decided firstly to not relegate any teams other than herta which meant that karlsruhe and schalke avoided the drop and secondly to expand the league from 16 to 18 teams by also promoting one team from berlin from the region aliga to the bundesliga tennis borussia berlin who were hurt as biggest rivals at the time were actually the next best team in berlin having reached the promotion playoffs that season but having lost those playoffs they weren't considered for promotion since the league decided that it would be unfair on the unpromoted teams who finished above them in the playoffs the city's next strongest club was spandauer sv who finished second that season in the regular league of berlin but they turned down automatic promotion to the bundesliga as hurt as replacements meaning that the offer went to tasmania berlin who accepted but were hopelessly ill-equipped to compete to the highest level of german football tasmania berlin won just eight points the following season becoming the worst bundesliga team of all time after scoring only 15 goals all season and conceding a whopping 108 the whole scandal was a total farce especially since inevitably the bundesliga still ended up having no teams from berlin that reality was just delayed for a single season but it is a useful guide and illustration of the perennial madness and irregularities of football in berlin it's often said by people who don't know much about berlin that unlike cities like hamburg munich and dortmund berlin just isn't a football city hence their lack of historic success that is total nonsense as anyone who has been to berlin well no the reality is just that the city's thriving football culture is extremely fragmented with virtually every district and neighborhood within the german capital having their own club this coupled with berlin actually having been quite poor in relation to west german cities during the post-war era is why no single club from berlin has enjoyed sustained success at the highest level since the 1930s herta were the last club to do it as the second most successful club during the interwar period reaching six successive german championship finals between 1926 and 1931 and winning two of them in 1930 and 1931. those two titles at the beginning of the 1930s remain the only two major trophies the hurter have ever won their highest league finish during the bundesliga era having come in the 1974-75 season when they finished as top flight runners-up six points behind borussia munch and glapback herta also reached two dfb poker finals in 1977 and in 1979 and rather incredibly their reserve team actually reached the final in 1993 following an extraordinary cup run losing one nil in the final to buy a lather cousin who had also knocked their first team out in the round of 16. in more recent times her to have had a number of seasons playing in europe 7th and 6th place finishes in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons and the club europa league qualification but only ever by the skin of their teeth and herta failed to qualify for the group stages of the europa league in the 2016-17 season and finished bottom of their group in 2017-18 in essence whilst turtle were flirting with european football they were closer points wise in the bundesliga to relegation than they were to buy munich or even their nearest competitors and that seemed likely to remain the case until serious investment arrived sure enough in the summer of 2019 tech entrepreneur and financier lars vindhorst bought 37.5 percent of shares in the club's football operations via his investment firm tenor holding the deal which was reported to be worth 125 million euros was the largest single investment in the entire history of german football with the two previous record deals being by audi and allianz with their 110 million euro investments in bayern munich in exchange for just eight point three three percent of the club's shares as was the case at bayern vindhorst only acquired a 37.5 percent interest in herta's footballing operations meanwhile supporters that is to say club members still control the club's voting rights as per germany's 50 plus one regulations essentially for those of you who are unfamiliar with 50 plus one a club can sell 100 of the company that runs their footballing operations but that company must remain a subsidiary of the parent company which must be majority controlled by members and supporters later that same summer vindhorst activated the option on his original deal to acquire a further 12 of herta investing a further 100 million euros this was significant not only because of the scale of the investment which was enormous and virtually unprecedented and hurt his potential as berlin's leading club which is also obviously considerable but also because of the timing though it wasn't known to vindhorst or anyone else yet the following year the covert 19 pandemic would grind football to a halt and leave many clubs in perilous financial predicaments bundesliga teams were in much healthier shape than most going into the pandemic with a few notable exceptions but it meant that most would be forced to tighten their belts and potentially sell players hurt to meanwhile were primed to capitalise on that opening with their deep pockets giving them the leeway to strike whilst others just looked to balance the books and to climb up the bundesliga table what's more in the summer of 2020 when football was at its lowest ebb financially vindhorst pumped a further 150 million euros into the club taking his total investment up to an estimated 370 million euros and his total ownership up to 66 however that second round of investment was required not just because of the pandemic but also because vindhost's first season in the german capital hadn't exactly gone to plan the club burnt through four managers over the course of a single season most notably former germany by munich and usa boss jurgen klinsmann who lasted just 76 days at the olympia stadium klinsmann's appointment received plenty of media attention in germany as did his premature resignation following a clash between the legendary center forward and herta's general manager michael prince in german football it is common for club presidents general managers and directors of football to dictate most of the team's affairs from transfer policy to commercial deals whilst the head coach can pick a team and largely dictate the team's tactics but only from the pool of players that he has given it is a method of doing things that has been adopted throughout much of european football even in england designed to ensure continuity of style direction and leadership long term given the reality of managers often not sticking around for long at football clubs in the modern game klinsmann who had been out of club management for more than a decade when he took the hurt a job said that he was a manager not a coach and that the lack of control that he was afforded at the club made it impossible for him to do the job that he wanted despite his resignation klinsmann was keen to stay on as part of herta's supervisory board but he would be banned from doing so by vindhorst who described his behavior and departure as quote unacceptable easy tiger vindhorst probably felt particularly aggrieved because during the time that klinsmann was at the club he actually did pretty well harter won three drew three and lost only one of his 10 games in charge having only had their heads narrowly above the relegation zone by virtue only of goal difference when klinsmann and his team arrived herter had signed dodie luca bacchio from watford for a club record fee in the summer of 2019 and during the january 2020 transfer window whilst klinsmann was at the club hurt her spent more money than any other team in world football forking out more than 75 million euros on new signings including kristoff piantak who was brought in from ac milan and luca tussar who arrived from leon becoming her to second and third arrivals to become club record signings within the space of just six months this was seismic investment and vindhorst expected to see it pay dividends out on the pitch following his second round of investment he stated quote if everyone plays a part and avoids big mistakes then there is theoretically no reason why hurter shouldn't even be german champion and mixing with the best in the champions league end quote along with his most famous quote of course that he wanted to turn herter into a big city club comparable to the top teams in london paris and madrid vindhorst could be forgiven for thinking that herta were finally on the right track for that brief period under klinsmann with a suitably high-profile first-team boss hence his sense of betrayal when the former ballon d'or runner-up decided to depart vindhorst himself is someone who has always been relentlessly ambitious at the age of 14 with the help of his parents he was already importing computer parts from asia assembling them in his family's garage and then selling the finished products in his parents shop by 17 windhorst was already a minor celebrity in germany having started his own business building computers enlisting the help of his classmates in assembling the pcs while still at school vinthorst was invited to join a german government delegation on a trip to asia where he became the youngest participant at the world economic forum in davos all of these news stories prompted vintors to be nicknamed germany's bill gates and later that year he founded a company called vintorsk electronics alongside chinese businessman ming rong zhang who he had met on that trip to asia within a year vindhorst electronics reported a turnover of 18 million pounds and at 19 vindhorst relocated to hong kong founding a holding company under which all of his other businesses would operate tech businesses boomed during the 1990s and the young germans companies were no exception but then came the dot-com bubble at the turn of the millennium which would wipe vindhorst and most of his pairs out in 2002 he tried to take the company public in a desperate bid to raise funds but most investors were still running a mile from tech at the time and in 2003 windhorst electronics was declared bankrupt the following year vindhorst re-entered the world of business as a co-founder of sepinder group a private investment company and within just a few years the firm was said to have more than two billion euros in assets under management then came the financial crash the second financial crisis in less than a decade that hit the exact field in which vindhus business operated and yet again his company was forced to declare bankruptcy sepinder began trading once again in 2010 gradually rebuilding its reputation and portfolio and supposedly having doubled in size from even its pre-crash peak by 2013. in 2016 it was reported that sepinder had made 146 million pounds profit over the last 12 months if one accounted for the increased value of the company's assets vindhorst's reputation extends far beyond the mere boom and must nature his companies though in 2007 vindhorst filed for personal bankruptcy and in 2010 when sepinder relaunched he relocated to the united kingdom and began renting office space in london's famous savile row as the company's new headquarters vindhorst wore suits that were suitably expensive for the company's premises and developed a reputation for hosting some of the city's most lavish parties whether that be at his own private residence or aboard his 67 metre 115 million dollar yacht just a year earlier the public prosecutor in berlin had press charges against vindhorst for fraud breach of trust embezzlement and several counts of insolvency offences vindhorst ended up entering into a plea bargain which saw the fraud charges dropped in exchange for him paying a fine of 1 million euros repaying 2.5 million euros to his alleged victim and admitting to a breach of trust defense for which he was given a one-year probation period that court case and his subsequent conviction perhaps played a part in vindhor's decision to relocate to london where he immediately donated the necessary 10 000 pounds to the conservative party which at the time was the required sum to become a member of the number 10 club which offers members the chance to meet senior parliamentarians four times a year i believe that it is slightly more expensive now though our democracy is still disappointingly cheap you also don't have to be a convicted criminal like vindhorst to become a member but it is actively encouraged whilst vindhorst donated to the conservatives it was a senior member of the labour party peter mandelson who was appointed to his advisory board in 2015. in short vindhorst is a controversial figure both that same in germany and in the uk with sepinder's investments reported to often be funded by complex loans backed by offshore companies vindhorst renamed sepindras tenor in 2019 and it is through 10 all that he has invested quite literally hundreds of millions of euros into herter berlin vindhorst's own net worth is seemingly unknown the sunday times richlist put it at 320 million pounds back in 2015 more recent estimates have quoted figures as high as 875 million euros meanwhile some have even described him as a billionaire whatever the exact figure may be it seems evident that vindhorst or his company at least have plenty of money behind them given their investment in herder to date and windhorst's promise that he will keep pumping money in until he gets hurter to where they want to be that may be more money than there is currently in circulation in the entire world and more time than vindhorst has on this planet though at least if herta's current trajectory since his arrival is anything to base future predictions upon following klinsmann's resignation and two further managerial casualties that season herta finished 10th in the 2019-20 campaign 8 points off europe and 10 points above the drop that was the year in which coveted hit and whilst herta toned down their spending the following summer they still forked out close to 30 million pounds far more than most covered cash strapped bundesliga sides in addition to bringing matteo guendouzi on loan to the club from arsenal hertza got off to a bad start to the season and following another managerial casualty during the january transfer window as bruno labardia this time lost his job and club legend padoy was reappointed having been sacked himself in 2019 things only got worse but for an unbeaten run of eight games at the end of the season which saw herta finish two points above the relegation playoffs they would surely have gone down this was not supposed to happen herze were a mid-table team who had played european football not long ago when vindhorst first arrived and following a million euro cash injection now they've found themselves battling relegation and going through managers like watford at the heart of hurter's problems was the club's internal conflict there are in effect three competing factions at the olympia stardian vindhorst whose cash the club depends upon and who now owns two-thirds of hertz's footballing operation the presidential and executive board who were at the club long before vindhorst arrived and the fans who ultimately own and control the majority of the club but were increasingly feeling detached from the team they support and disillusioned with how herta was being run all three of these factions have been at loggerheads at times particularly vindhorst and the board at one point vintos turned on her to president werner gargan bauer to such an extent that he actually called upon supporters to vote him out of office blaming gargan bauer for his 370 million euro investment having been wasted down the drain it is important to note that the 370 million euros is apparently all gone not only have herta spent a fair amount on new signings the pandemic 8-2 a huge chunk of their cash reserves along with their bloated and overpaid squad supporters meanwhile was split on gaijin barrel for a long time meanwhile vinthor's own background means that he is somewhat inevitably treated with a certain degree of suspicion in january 2021 another major change was implemented as general manager michael preetz who had previously clashed with jurgen klinsmann was relieved of his duties and replaced by freddie bobbitch bobbitch who previously played for herter between 2003 and 2005 arrived at the olympia stadion off the back of five years as sporting director at eintracht frankfurt where he took the club from the cusp of relegation to a europa league semi-final and indeed a europa league title this season in large part due to his hard work his task at herter would be much the same though bobbitch has played down the possibility of an immediate return to european football something has gone wrong otherwise i wouldn't be here was the soundbite from his first press conference and just in case anyone was still in any doubt bobich's first full season in berlin has emphatically illustrated the fact that something is indeed very badly wrong over the summer bobbitch made the controversial decision to sell two of hertz's three highest scorers from the previous campaign matthias kuna and yonkoroba meanwhile the other namely christophe pianczek joined fiorentina on loan during the january transfer window a lot of fans were left feeling perplexed by bobbitt's decision but as he put it none of them scored more than seven goals last season that may well have been the case but no one else scored more than that and neither would anyone who bobbitch brought in to replace them stefan jovitch was hurt as top scorer this season following six goals in the bundesliga and seven in all competitions and only the bottom two teams who were relegated automatically scored fewer goals than herta and only one team conceded more once again herta went through three different managers this season and the appointment of infamous disciplinarian felix mcgatt who has been accused of running football clubs a little bit like dictators run their own authoritarian states was thought to have been a prank by some when the news first broke it wasn't a prank though and in the end her to finish the season third from bottom going into the relegation playoffs where they met second bundesliga giants hamburg in german football there is a relegation play-off each season between the team who finishes third in the second bundesliga and third from bottom in the bundesliga and in the first leg herta looked absolutely hopeless fortunately for them they only lost one nil and in the second leg they were a completely different team coming from behind to win 2-1 on aggregate and to very narrowly retain their bundesliga status the last few years have been chaotic for her to berlin as has most of the last century in truth but this summer looks set to see the club's biggest overhaul yet whilst a presidential election wasn't scheduled to take place for another few years when a three to one super majority among members was reached against geygenbauer's presidency a snap election was triggered the election again was pure chaos one candidate marco hennig was forced to withdraw his bid following a racism scandal after he commented get kalu in front of the lens warming up before the game on a facebook post referring to former chelsea forward solomon kalu and this post was on a photograph of a black drinks cellar on the forecourt outside of the olympia stallion after he was forced to withdraw whilst denying any allegations of racism of course hennig threw his weight behind the favorite conservative politician frank steffel of the cdu the christian democratic party now far be it from me to question the intellect or judgment of someone who has spent more than 30 years in german politics but steffel is a man who once described munich as germany's most beautiful city and as its secret capital whilst running to become mayor of berlin he lost and he lost again in hurt his presidential elections despite being the big favourite to the leader of one of herter's ultra groups lifelong herder fan k bernstein only announced his bid to become her to president a couple of months ago at a time when it seemed unlikely that an election would be held within the next couple of years and even more unlikely that he would ever win it bernstein was formerly hurt as cappo which is the name given to the ultra the uc games carrying a megaphone and starting a lot of chance bernstein was triggered into action following hurtus 4-1 defeat at home to union berlin in early april which was the final straw for many supporters quite literally as illustrated by hertz's attendance for their next home game after that one falling by more than 20 thousand bernstein was quoted in the athletic in may as saying quote conflict comes about when expectation clashes with reality when you don't communicate clearly about what your expectations are a lot of the conflicts we have had in recent years would have been avoidable with better internal and external communication end quote though the 41 year old is quite so focused on communication should come as little surprise not just because herters has been terrible for years but also because bernstein runs a communications agency when he isn't orchestrating chants on the terraces his candidacy was seemingly about giving fans a voice in presidential debates presenting ideas and complaints that no one else would and talking in plain english or plain german in this instance however last monday bernstein won close to 1 700 votes out of roughly 3 000 there were cast by members present at the club's agm thus winning the presidential election seen as the anti-establishment pro-fanbase candidate bernstein's election has been greeted with jubilation among many hurter fans at a time when the ruptures between the club's internal structures and their supporters has never been worse bernstein doesn't just want to give supporters a team that they can be proud of and get behind on a saturday afternoon but also a club that they can feel affinity towards every day of the week the community-driven nature of union berlin where supporters donated blood to raise funds and quite literally rebuilt the club stadium with their own hands in recent years has been integral to their rise bernstein wants herder to have a little bit more of that taking stances on social issues and reflecting the values of the club's fans he also wants herta to make more use of their academy which has been one of few success stories at the club in recent years but all too often hurt her haven't capitalized on the talent that they have been able to nurture jerome boateng kevin prince boateng and nico schultz all came through the hurt of youth ranks but despite all going on to reach bigger and better things elsewhere herze didn't receive enormous fees for any of them the boateng brothers departed for just 1.1 million euros and 5.4 million pounds respectively meanwhile schultz generated only 4 million pounds when he headed to borussia munchengladbach in 2015. kevin prince boateng has been back at herter now age 35 since july 2021 after signing a contract extension this summer until 2023 the former ghana international offered to buy 2023 kebabs for herter fans freddie bobbitch is a big fan of prince boateng and the feeling is mutual boateng likened bobbitch's impact at andrick frankfurt following their recent europa league title to leonardo messi's impact at his old club barcelona meanwhile bobbitch has described beauteng as hurt as leader praising his performance in the relegation playoffs and claiming that herta need more fighters and street footballers just like him which may give you one or two hints as to the profile of player that herter will be looking to sign this summer in addition to a new president and a relatively new sporting director her to have already made three summer signings in addition to appointing a new manager of course meanwhile 10 players have already departed along with manager felix megat it is a radical but necessary overhaul and one that has only just begun upon his departure magats said of herze you can't single out something as the biggest problem it was nothing but problems echoing the sentiments of his predecessor who said that he felt like there was no one there to help you when you were managing herta whilst her to have lurched from one crisis to the next uni on berlin have got just about every big decision right over the past five years and just seem to get better and better as a collective even when they lose their star players the contrasting fortunes of herta and union in recent years the latter of whom were competing in germany's fourth tier as recently as the 2005-06 season is reflected in their current discussions with berlin council massively over subscribed in terms of match day and season tickets uni on berlin are desperate to expand their stadium the stadion ander alten festeroi for a fourth time and increase its current capacity of twenty two thousand and twelve hurt and meanwhile want a new purpose-built football stadium all of their own at least in part because they cannot consistently fill berlin's enormous olympic stadium few teams could no team though had more empty seats in the bundesliga than hurter this season whilst none had fewer than union plans to construct a 55 000 seater stadium all of their own to be opened in 2025 when their current lease at the olympia stadium comes to an end now looks about as likely as herter lifting the bundesliga title next season and berlin city council are not exactly known for being the most liberal when it comes to approving massive new infrastructure projects heart of berlin are in a mess having been poorly run for about a decade before lars vindhorst arrived and catastrophically run since his almost 400 million euro investment was dumped in and immediately lost with nothing to show for it the trimming down of that bloated first team squad the promotion of talented young academy players and a communicative fan as a president will all come as welcome news to most hurter fans but these are just first steps and for every positive that exists there are a handful of pitfalls for the old lady at just about every turn bernstein has never worked in football administration before and whilst that is viewed as a positive for some it also presents its own difficulties trust and belief needs to be rebuilt with fans which means at the very least some improvements on the pitch and the biggest dilemma of all may well prove to be the relationship between lars windhorst and freddie bobbitch vindhorst wants instant success or at least expects it within the space of just a few years yet the club has only gone backwards since he arrived bobbitch has urged caution and patience at every juncture partly as a form of expectation management one suspects but also because herta were very nearly relegated this season suggesting that a champions league push is hardly imminent from what i can tell those contrasting expectations and timelines that exist in vindhorst and bovich's minds could lead to conflict or at the very least the same kind of internal tensions that have plagued the club in recent years the positives for herta are the same as they have always been big club big city and now seemingly big resources but just as that historically has never been enough there is no reason to believe that it will be this time around they can also somewhat ironically take some inspiration from union berlin whose extraordinary rise shows just how quickly things can change in football if you create the right culture and employ the right personnel there aren't many teams in european football that it is easy to imagine either playing in europe or in their country's second tier over the next few years but herta are certainly one of them and whichever of those fates it is to be it's likely that we will look back at the decisions that were made this summer as having been decisive that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as of watching i know that it was a fairly lengthy one but there was quite a lot to pack in believe it or not there was quite a lot that i also left out but yeah hope you enjoyed it hit the like button if that was the case let me know your thoughts down below in the comments and make sure you're subscribed and have notifications turned on the right side cc7 you could also find me on social media on either twitter or instagram by the username at hrtc7s on both should you wish to do so have a brilliant day

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 226,934

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Hertha Berlin, Hertha, Berlin, Hertha BSC, Bundesliga, Documentary, What On Earth, Is Going On, Decline, Demise, Downfall, Premier League, Champions League, Relegation, Owner, Money, Finance, Transfers, Arsenal, Bayern, Union Berlin

Id: O6Gh-XEPzDI

Length: 36min 37sec (2197 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/plsdontupvote]

Very helpful. I'm so out of the loop all the individual pieces of news (x is sacked, y is sacked, z leaves...) are hard to make sense of