Hamburger SV doesn't get any rest - that's a sentence that is almost always valid. At the moment, however, things are particularly turbulent: While the second division team started the season with one win and one defeat, the scraps are flying violently again in the management floor. Everyone against everyone, you might think. If the observer takes a close look at the chronic quarrels, quarrels and quarrels of the last 20 years, a veritable long-term Netflix series could be shot with boiling hearts. But no guarantee of a happy ending.
Once again it's about money, which HSV has been missing from every nook and cranny for a very long time. Now a fierce argument has broken out over 23.5 million euros, which flowed from the city of Hamburg to the traditional club in late summer 2020. Since then, he has leased the site on which he sits and the stadium. HSV, in turn, had to contractually agree to use part of the money to cover the modernization and renovation costs for hosting games at the 2024 European Football Championship. But the HSV is clammy, the money wasted.
HSV CFO Thomas Wüstefeld spent hours explaining his view of things to the Hamburg media last Tuesday. In ten days he wants to present a financial solution, 20 million euros would have to be found. The medical entrepreneur had other things to clarify. After a long-term feud with sports director Jonas Boldt, he is now also in a clinch with HSV major investor Klaus-Michael Kühne. The 53-year-old acquired 5.11 percent of the AG shares from the logistics company in October 2021 for 14.2 million euros. Now Wüstefeld, who initially became the boss of the supervisory board and was finally appointed to the provisional board by the end of the year, wants to legally reopen the deal. Wüstefeld's main accusation also: important details about the economic condition of the club were withheld from him. He wants some of his investment back. Now even with Wüstefeld, the fifth member of the board since the spin-off into a football club in 2014, is threatening to leave the premises in the Volkspark early.
In addition to Kühne, the long-standing HSV finance director Frank Wettstein, who was replaced in December, also plays a key role in this sleaze. Above all, according to Wüstefeld, he knew about the huge hole in the cash register and deliberately misled him about the desolate situation of HSV. He speaks of a "lousy" handover. Boldt is also said to have known about these events very early on. Now two halves have formed in the seven-strong HSV supervisory board for and against Wüstefeld or Boldt, to be precise it's three against four. exit open. New in the canon of allegations against Wüstefeld is that he is said to have thwarted the replacement of the sports director post, as reported by the "Hamburger Abendblatt".
Meanwhile, Uefa and the city are putting pressure on the club, which is responsible for renovating the essentials for at least a single-digit million sum. But this money is also missing. In the meantime, sports director Michael Mutzel has also been dismissed after arguments with Boldt. On the other hand, he sued successfully and now receives a substantial compensation from HSV.
The scenario that Wüstefeld withdraws completely is also conceivable – or he is thrown out. Wüstefeld is still desperately trying to regulate the financing. Another investor is to be tied in with Detlef Dinsel, a newly elected new member of the Supervisory Board. But talks about buying shares with Kühne Holding are currently stalling. The total cost of the renovation of the Volksparkstadion, which was completed in 2000, is said to amount to 40 million euros, including the new roof membrane. "We are currently in difficult waters, the renovation has top priority," said Wüstefeld, who wants to present a concept soon. After all, a subsequent 20 percent stake in the transfer of Amadou Onana, who is moving from Lille to West Ham United, could result in an additional payment of around six million euros.
The grandees of the Rothosen are also struck by the fact that, instead of saving, they live quite big for the second division. Now Boldt and Co. want to free up millions more for a squad reinforcement. Because coach Tim Walter is also on battlements. He doesn't think the squad is good enough in public to finally achieve the long-awaited resurgence after five years in the second division wasteland. “We wanted to be more one-on-one. But you also need one-on-one players for that,” criticized the head coach after the hard-fought 3-1 victory in extra time in the first DFB Cup main round against SpVgg Bayreuth last Saturday. "It would be nice to get something." On Thursday he emphatically specified his wish: "We're definitely missing Bakary Jatta, but we're generally lacking wingers," he said.
Once again, there is no real framework on the pitch, a hierarchy worthy of the name and a leader. Old warhorses like Sonny Kittel are too soft to carry the others along for a whole year, newcomers like the highly talented Ransford Königsdörffer still need a lot of time. HSV has been a coaching team since the summer of 2021, when the idiosyncratic and self-confident Walter took over. His tactic of always playing vertically is fragile and counter-prone. Especially since he doesn't have a Champions League squad but a second division squad. His system and his work, which is very much based on mental strength and euphoria, needs victories as a lubricant. All the poison in the management floor is harmful. Nevertheless, the team has to fix it and win if possible at home against 1. FC Heidenheim on Saturday (1 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on WELT.de). So far, a good 40,500 of the 57,000 possible places have been sold.
City rivals and league rivals FC St. Pauli, on the other hand, were able to calmly prepare for the difficult away game at 1. FC Kaiserslautern (Sunday, 1.30 p.m.). Central defender Jakov Medic, who is being courted by VfB Stuttgart, should also stay at least this season
