“Exclusively indissoluble private reasons”: Hertha managing director Carsten Schmidt resigns surprisingly – that also hits the club hard because he had a good relationship with investor Lars Windhorst.
After less than a year, Carsten Schmidt resigned as CEO of Hertha BSC for personal reasons. The Bundesliga team spread this news in a press release on Tuesday. “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 in the communiqué. The contract was terminated with immediate effect. Hertha President Werner Gegenbauer said that the request “after trusting discussions with a heavy heart” had been granted. Gegenbauer and Schmidt announced that they would like to comment on Wednesday in a press conference.
Schmidt, 58, was introduced as Hertha CEO in December 2020. He had previously made a name for himself in the industry as the manager of the German pay broadcaster Sky. It was no coincidence that Schmidt was under discussion as a candidate to succeed Christian Seifert as head of the German Football League DFL. However, he stayed at Hertha, where he not only managed the operational business, but also initiated various structural reforms. Among other things, the “Project Goldelse” named after the popular name of the Berlin Victory Column.
Schmidt’s farewell hits Hertha to the core not only in organizational terms
Schmidt had spoken of wanting to start with Hertha “the biggest catch-up that German football has ever seen”. One of the most drastic changes in Schmidt’s tenure was the replacement of Fredi Bobic’s predecessor as sports director, Michael Preetz. Together with President Gegenbauer, he had determined the fate of Hertha for more than a decade. Schmidt’s tasks are to be taken over by manager Fredi Bobic and his colleague, managing director Ingo Schiller.
Schmidt’s farewell hits Hertha to the core not only in organizational terms. Schmidt also had a good relationship with investor Lars Windhorst, who is more than just skeptical of a number of long-standing forces at Hertha.
Windhorst joined Hertha in the summer of 2019. He has pumped a total of 374 million euros into Hertha through his investment company Tennor. It is not just the relationship with the traditional Hertha rulers that can be improved; so are the sporting results. Since the entry of the ambitious investor, Hertha has always been involved in the relegation battle. The Berliners are currently in 14th place in the table – with only six points from seven games, seven places and six points behind their local rivals Union.
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