Dhe departure of the club boss, Carsten Schmidt, who was brought in as a reformer, is causing renewed unrest at Hertha BSC and is further slowing down the development of the crisis-ridden “Big City Club”. The managing director will leave Berlin after less than a year. A few minutes before the planned start of training on Tuesday, the Tagesspiegel had first reported on it. About two hours later, the capital club confirmed the change in an official announcement.
“There are only indissoluble private reasons due to illness in my immediate family environment that prompted me to take this step,” Schmidt was quoted as saying by the club. “Working for Hertha BSC has always given me great pleasure.”
And yet it can’t go on for the 58-year-old. From now on, the two managing directors Fredi Bobic and Ingo Schiller will take over the responsibilities. “It was with regret that we received Mr. Schmidt’s request to terminate his service contract immediately for exclusively private reasons,” said Hertha’s club president Werner Gegenbauer.
Surprise from media reports
Schmidt only took up his position at Hertha on December 1, 2020. Before that, the manager worked for four years as head of the TV broadcaster Sky in Munich. Schmidt had come to the Spree as a new strong man, began his work at the side of the then sports director Michael Preetz and financial director Schiller. Schmidt was responsible for leading the trio. As managing director he was the head of the operational business of the association. Now the management has to be restructured again after turbulent months.
Investor Lars Windhorst, under whose influence the structure around Schmidt was created, “deeply” regretted the unexpected departure, as the entrepreneur quickly tweeted: “He had big plans, as I know …” Windhorst and Schmidt phoned on Tuesday and showed up “It was dismayed that things were brought to the public in advance that were confidential,” emphasized Windhorst. Not for the first time the club had been surprised by media reports about internal matters.
Downside of business
Schmidt should actually ensure that the badly battered appearance of the capital city dwellers a little more positive. According to reports, there has been resistance to initiatives by the media professional over and over again in the past few months, and it is said that he has not been able to work as Schmidt would have wished for a long time.
After just a month of getting to know each other, the situation at the club had come to a head and Schmidt also got to know the downsides of the business. Both coach Bruno Labbadia and Preetz had to leave the club in January. Pal Dardai took over as coach and held Hertha at least in the Bundesliga. Schmidt recruited Bobic from Eintracht Frankfurt as the new head of sport, but sporting success is still a long way off. After seven games, Hertha is currently only in 14th place and coach Dardai is under criticism.
Above all, Windhorst wants to see results, dreams of getting involved at the top of the Bundesliga and achieving international business. The entrepreneur has paid around 375 million euros to the capital city club since 2019 and thus holds around two thirds of Hertha BSC GmbH & Co. KGaA, to which the professional department belongs. His say is quite limited, however, the decisions are made without Windhorst in the club management.
It was only at the weekend that Windhorst made it clear that he wanted more togetherness. “I expected that you would work more constructively and positively on projects and topics as a team, exchange ideas and really develop the club with joy, creativity and dynamism and take it to a new level. That has not really happened so far, ”Windhorst told the RBB. At the same time, he emphasized once again that we absolutely want to have success with the Berliners in the future: “We will do everything in the next few years to be successful. Everything – and by that I really mean everything. “
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