It’s even more difficult than usual these days to adequately describe the condition of Hamburger SV. One should remain reverent, so shortly after the death of Uwe Seeler, the greatest HSVers in history, who never grumbled about the crash of his heart club. He was just sad. In addition, football language often sounds like war rhetoric, and who wants to read about trench warfare or power management in these times?
Unfortunately it’s like this: The current HSV leaves little choice but to remember Uwe Seeler’s legacy and sometimes to use those martial terms that are currently written in the tabloids above the HSV articles.
The situation is, well, complicated again at the traditional club, which is why only the contours of a hair-raising overall picture can be traced at this point. First of all, perhaps to the basic constellation, which is confirmed in direct discussions by some of those involved and vehemently denied by others: On the one hand there is the chairman of the supervisory board Marcell Jansen, the CFO Thomas Wüstefeld and the ex-sports director Michael Mutzel, who may soon be back office in the HSV office. More on that in a moment. On the other side there is sports director Jonas Boldt, coach Tim Walter and the HSV team.
Sports director Mutzel successfully fights his dismissal in court – but does that really help him?
This is roughly how the front line runs at the second division team HSV, where things can traditionally get rough behind the scenes. The current theater started in December 2021, when the medical entrepreneur Wüstefeld joined HSV as a shareholder and then brought it from the supervisory board to the board – a march through the institutions that some old sixty-eighters still dream of to this day. Wüstefeld and the chairman of the supervisory board, Jansen, appreciate each other from previous business relationships, but there was no harmonious cooperation with the sports director Boldt.
It didn’t get any better when sports director Mutzel sought the proximity of the influential Wüstefeld in the second half of the past year because he had speculated on the job of sports director under his care – according to Boldt’s accusation.
Boldt first denied Mutzel access to the players’ cabin and then (in the middle of the transfer period) ejected his senior staff, which Mutzel sued. The two met again in court on Tuesday – and Mutzel was right. The ex-sports director is, at least for the time being, sports director again. Only: what good does it do him? Apparently, HSV no longer has any money for new players because the club has to get their stadium in good shape before the EM 2024 for many millions.
Next annoyance behind the scenes: The HSV supervisory board recently imposed a spending freeze
According to Boldt, CFO Wüstefeld originally promised a transfer budget of ten to 15 million euros so that – finally, finally – the return to first class success. Due to the unclear financial situation, the HSV supervisory board recently imposed a spending freeze, which is why Boldt and coach Walter are pissed off and some even suspect betrayal: do people want to torpedo the sporting goals in order to fill a few key positions soon?
Oh yes, the investor and HSV fan Klaus-Michael Kühne is also involved. He pays a lot of money for the naming rights to the Volksparkstadion and would be in favor of HSV soon playing their home games at the Uwe-Seeler-Stadion. What is decisive, however, is the way it is quoted Bild from a letter from Kühnes to the club, whether the “weak club management” will accept the proposal. Cynics could now remark: It’s good that Seeler no longer has to put himself through all this. This HSV is just too broken.
