With courage and risk (nd current)

Things are different at 1. FC Union at the moment. On this Saturday, the Berlin Bundesliga team starts the new season against Bayer Leverkusen. The day before, the club announced that tickets were still available for this game. And that, although according to the new rules with a 50 percent capacity utilization of the stadiums, only 11,000 spectators are allowed to attend. From Friday, fans without a membership card could also buy tickets – after season ticket holders and club members had not exhausted the quota. Unthinkable in the time before Corona.

Something unimaginable up to now for Unioners will happen in just under two weeks: a home game of the Köpenicker Club in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. And then maybe a few more in the home stadium of city rivals Hertha BSC. On August 26th, 1. FC Union will host the Finns from Kuopio PS for the qualifying second leg in the Conference League. Seven days in advance, both teams will meet at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Should the Berliners be victorious in the sum of both duels, further games will follow in the new competition of the European football association Uefa. The decision of the club to move to the unpopular Hertha stadium was by no means without an alternative – and is therefore also controversial in fan circles. In order to minimize the risk of a major argument, club president Dirk Zingler informed the members at the end of June: “If no or only a few spectators are allowed for pandemic reasons, we will play these games in the An der Alten Försterei stadium.” It turned out differently. Because of the Uefa standing room ban and the resulting admission only very few spectators in their own stadium, the Köpenicker took the pragmatic step to Charlottenburg.

The footballers of 1. FC Union in particular had shown surprising things recently. Relegation was followed by qualification for Europe in the second Bundesliga year with seventh place. Now, before the third season in the German elite class, the primary goal remains to prevent relegation one more time. From the words of the trainer Urs Fischer you can hear not only reasonable restraint but also increased self-confidence. “I do believe that you can only be successful with a certain confidence and courage. But that does not mean that we are losing the ground under our feet. We’re not so far as to be the favorites when we play against Leverkusen, “the Swiss said before the opening game. One of his greatest challenges in recent weeks is still preoccupying Fischer: “Integrating twelve new players, there is still room for improvement, that is the main topic.”

Unbelievable things can be discovered when looking at the transfer market. The effects of the pandemic were to be expected. With a total of around 400 player changes by the 18 Bundesliga clubs, there were almost 50 million euros in surplus on Friday afternoon. That last happened six years ago, and the rule was overspending, even in the three-digit million range. According to manager Oliver Ruhnert, 1. FC Union is still one of the clubs that – measured by financial means – would struggle to survive in this league. Before this season, the Berliners are among the five Bundesliga clubs that have made a loss on the transfer market. With a minus of more than eleven million euros, Union ranks fourth behind the Champions League starters FC Bayern Munich and VfL Wolfsburg as well as Borussia Mönchengladbach.

“We have a lot more potential on the positive side than risk on the other,” says Ruhnert, explaining the move of striker Taiwo Awoniyi from Liverpool FC to Koepenick. With an estimated 6.5 million euros, the 23-year-old Nigerian is the most expensive new addition in the club’s history. So he replaced left-back Tymoteusz Puchacz. The Polish international was signed for 3.5 million just before Awoniyi this summer. There is no doubt that Union is entering new dimensions. So far, Ruhnert’s calculations have always paid off, and he has received a lot of praise from the industry for his squad planning so far in Berlin. He resolutely counteracts concerns and fear of the consequences of a possible failure: “We are prepared for anything.”