By Peter Vice
Another resignation on Monday shrinks the Hertha executive committee to just four members. The now severely depleted body will convene for an emergency meeting on Wednesday to appoint an acting President from its ranks.
After a hostile and completely chaotic general assembly on Sunday (covered in some depth below), Hertha will have to place someone in charge in order to remain an attractive enough organization to operate coherently on the current transfer market.
| Photo: Martijn Mureau, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Chaos continues to consume German capital city club Hertha BSC. After “die alte Dame” lost its interim President at a turbulent general meeting over the weekend, Norbert Sauer’s resignation on Monday from the executive committee leaves just four individuals left on the board. Sauer joins former President Werner Gegenbauer and interim President Thorsten Manske as a trio of higher ups that have left the club in the past six days.
Hertha have in fact lost many bosses this year, including former CEO Carsten Schmidt and assistant sporting director Arne Friedrich. Facing the members on Sunday, current Sporting CEO Fredi Bobic had to strike a remorseful tone amid a hail of jeers during the prolonged seven hour session on Sunday.
“I feel guilty,” the 50-year-old told some 2,800 assembled members, “We didn’t deliver and I am responsible for that. We didn’t find a foundation, but rather started building from the roof. We had a team that was not a team. Dialogue with you members is damned important to us. You were there when we needed you.”
Controversial investor Lars WIndhorst, speaking after Bobic, also had to face the music. The 45-year-old was heckled mercilessly as he tried to speak. Windhorst offered up apologies for some of his missteps, but also got quite defensive. He responded directly to the “Windhorst Raus” (“Windhorst out”) chants
“‘Windhorst out’ doesn’t actually work,” the investor stressed, “I’m not standing for election, I can’t be voted out. My shares are paid for and belong to me. I’m not leaving, that’s not even possible. I’m in it for the next 10, 20 years.”
There were some positives on Sunday as the supervisory committee did elect some new members. The executive board nevertheless urgently needs an acting President in order for the club to conduct business at all. With an actual election not scheduled until the end of June, German footballing magazine Kicker reports that the four remaining members will convene on the first of the month to select and acting President from their ranks.
Anne Jüngermann, Fabian Drescher, Peer Mock-Stümer und Ingmar Pering are last members of the executive committee. With all of the departures this year, the entire management system of the club must be restructured. That matter remains an urgent one; albeit a project that must take a back seat for now as the capital city’s Charlottenburg side struggles to maintain functionality first.
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