For many professional clubs, international breaks are welcome oases of calm, moments and days of almost religious contemplation. And who knows how boring it would be if it weren’t for Bayern Munich, who have just announced a spectacular change in coaching. Or the Berlin Hertha, which also made a name for itself this week. Because there the changes in the workforce, described by the local tabloid as “staff earthquakes”, continued happily.
Two months after the dismissal of sports director Fredi Bobic, which was rededicated to immediate dismissal a few days after its announcement by President Kay Bernstein, Hertha BSC confirmed further separations at the beginning of the week. Squad planner Dirk Dufner had to go, as did chief scout Babacar Wane and squad manager Johannes Waigand. They joined two employees who had also come to Berlin with Bobic in the summer of 2021 – and like Bobic, they were shown out at the end of January.
It was the technical director Sebastian Zelichowski and team manager Thomas Westphal. Hertha BSC vehemently contradicts the impression that it was a classic clean-up operation because only Bobic loyalists had to go. “These decisions were made as part of our restructuring, reorganization and economic consolidation measures,” Managing Director Tom E. Herrich told RBB and the Bild with.
According to reports, Bobic is willing, if in doubt, to go to a process that would presumably be difficult
What there is hardly any doubt: that there is an objective need to streamline the costs of the old lady. In the past three years alone, Hertha has accumulated losses of more than 200 million euros and is plagued by debt. Personnel costs for the first half of the current season alone were around 50 million euros. Transfers, high salaries, severance payments catalyzed a crisis that led to Hertha’s professional department recently being driven into the hands of a US locust called 777 Partners.
She wants to pump 100 million euros into the club to stabilize the financial situation in the short term. Herrich explained that the restructuring, which he had already declared essential in autumn 2022, will be continued: “This process will continue to accompany us in some areas. This does not only apply to the area of personnel,” said the managing director. And that should put a not inconsiderable part of the workforce under physical tension. For the new season, it can now be heard that only around 60 million euros in personnel costs are to be budgeted – although this number was already circulating as a realistic goal in Bobic’s time.
Even without remedial measures, there is enough unrest at Hertha as things stand at present: Bobic, Zelichowski and Westphal have taken legal action against their dismissals; a meeting between Hertha and Bobic, which had been scheduled for April 3 by the Berlin labor court, was canceled again. Because Bobic held a position as managing director, the district court was responsible, the Berlin judiciary announced. Dates have already been set in the cases of Zelichowski and Westphal. In the past, Hertha has emphasized that it is striving for an amicable solution with those who have been evicted. But so far there has been no rapprochement between the parties. And: According to reports, Bobic is willing, in case of doubt, to go to a process that would presumably be difficult.
Is the squad well enough set up for the Bundesliga? Coach Sandro Schwarz is 16th in the table with Hertha on Saturday. to the away game at SC Freiburg.
(Photo: O.Behrendt/Contrast/Imago)
Bobic should have a good chance of winning the case. According to press reports, the alleged reasons for Bobic’s summary dismissal included a verbal dispute with a TV reporter, who Hertha allegedly exaggerated into a threat to life and limb, as well as alleged leaks about confidential business transactions. Behind more or less reproach, Bobic is also accused of having inflated the personnel apparatus at Hertha.
In fact, he has installed around 15 employees; at Hertha, however, a number of follow-up commitments are also attested to him, so that the real number is even higher. If there is now talk of the tasks being redistributed “internally” by Dufner, for example, then that also has to do with the fact that Hertha got along without a squad planner before Bobic. Whether with or without a squad planner: Hertha remained true to the relegation battle, on Saturday the Berliners are 16th in the table. to the away game at SC Freiburg. And in the club, pointing to Bobic and Dufner, discussions are held as to whether the squad is sufficiently competitive. Which on the one hand would relieve coach Sandro Schwarz.
Coach Schwarz has to keep the unrest away from an unsettled team – but there are also whispers about his replacement
Black, on the other hand, is currently facing a double or triple challenge: to keep all the unrest in the club away from a team that keeps falling victim to uncertainty. According to his own statement, the coach feels “completely” the backing of the club management; It is more questionable whether he also feels supported by enough specialists and experience in the complicated sporting situation. Instead of Bobic, the comparatively inexperienced Benjamin Weber now works as sports director, assisted by Andreas “Zecke” Neuendorf, a Hertha cult figure. In the background, Investor 777 Partners is involved in a previously unrecognizable way.
The team obviously wants to continue working with the empathetic black. Winter access Florian Niederlechner took over the task these days in an interview with the Kicker to explain in convincing words. But that in the local press “five reasons” are pondering “why Hertha are relegated with coach Sandro Schwarz”, as the daily mirror did these days will not have escaped his notice. Nor that alternatives and names like Sebastian Hoeneß and Markus Gisdol have been whispered about for weeks.
