Power Struggles Bei Hertha

By: Abby | December 5th, 2007

thank you to Jan for help with the translation of a couple of articles, because this is way too complicated for me.

Hertha BSC Berlin had their annual meeting the other week. The good news is that they’ve posted a positive financial result, to the tune of €800,000, for the first time in 6 years. That doesn’t even include the sales of the Boateng brothers (Jerome went to Hamburg and Kevin-Prince went to Tottenham). It’s good news, but it wasn’t what made the initial headlines.

Instead, that honor went to the remarks made by the Hertha Berlin board about the general manager Dieter Hoeneß. Basically, the board were annoyed at some decisions Hoeneß had made, particularly regarding transfers (a Blackburn-supporting friend of mine is still gloating over how little they paid for Chris Samba) and the hasty season preparations. One board member declared that “[t]he Dieter-Hoeneß-model, the one man show, should not determine our future.” For an 86-year-old, harsh words indeed.

Dieter isn’t universally beloved around Hertha and German football circles. The fan club that Patrick Ebert got in trouble for wearing a T-shirt in support of, for example, were at one point referring to him as Public Enemy Number #1 (around when I wrote that post, actually). Raphael Honigstein at the Guardian referred to him in April as not only hopeless presently, but the worst player ever in a World Cup final to boot, as well as insinuating that he’s been in the position because his brother Uli doesn’t want Berlin to potentially challenge the Bayern hegemony. I personally love a ludicrous conspiracy theory, so it was a nice chuckle for me.

However, Hoeneß himself believes that he should get more credit, and he may have a point. He did establish Hertha in the Bundesliga after their 1997 promotion, and even raised them to European places on a few occasions. They’re starting to post a profit and look stable for the future, but questions about Hoeneß remain, and his general paranoia and unwillingness to be a team player don’t help.

All of which become clear when we get to Michael Preetz. Preetz, a former Hertha captain and top scorer, was appointed as an ‘assistant’ to Hoeneß in 2003. Hoeneß was supposed to train him in some of his duties, but he doesn’t seem all that thrilled with the idea and generally won’t say a good word about him. The chairmen want to see Hoeneß handing over some of his power to Preetz, with an eye to a smooth changeover in power when Hoeneß retires. They’re particularly keen to see Preetz take over as sporting director, which is one of Hoeneß’ many titles, and may appoint him as soon as 2008.

So what does all this have to do with the board meeting? Lots of things. At said meeting, the chairmen demanded that Preetz be appointed. Hoeneß demanded Preetz say something about it. To his credit, he praised Hoeneß far more than Hoeneß had ever praised him, talking about the good work relationship they had and generally being kind. However, he also said that he wanted Hoeneß’ job in 2010.

Hoeneß often mentioned 2010 as his retirement date, and it’s been generally assumed that Preetz will take over after that. It’s the first time that he’s said it aloud, though, and some speculate that Hoeneß was always hoping that they’d beg him to stay on for lack of a suitable candidate…

Anyway, that’s where it is right now. I’ll keep you updated when/if more happens on this.

Oh, and Hoeneß also blamed Preetz for not taking the players out to applaud the fans in a recent game. Stay classy!