Million-dollar investor Lars Windhorst has criticized the leadership of Hertha BSC in an unprecedented sharpness.
"I was counting on the fact that at Hertha rational and forward-thinking people would call the shots, who also want lasting success," the entrepreneur told the business magazine "Capital".
In the meantime, however, it has become clear that some of the people involved in the Berlin Bundesliga club are concerned with "maintaining power and being crooked," emphasized the 45-year-old, without naming specific names.
Windhorst has now described his payments totaling 375 million euros since 2019 as a mistake.
“To be honest, from today's perspective yes, unfortunately.
So far, investing in Hertha has only brought me disadvantages, apart from positive experiences with many members," he said.
But he doesn't think of withdrawing, Windhorst asserted again: "I won't let anyone burn me 375 million euros there and will therefore never give up," said Windhorst.
Windhorst has invested around 375 million euros in the capital club through its Tennor Group since the summer of 2019 and in return holds 66.6 percent of the shares in Hertha GmbH & Co. KGaA.
In terms of sport, the Berliners have been in a worse position than before since Windhorst joined.
Coach Tayfun Korkut's team is currently in the relegation battle with a one-point lead over the relegation rank, just like last year.
At the request of the Sport Information Service, Hertha reacted with surprise to Windhort's statements.
"Mr. Windhorst has never made any statements in this form either in the relevant meetings of the club or to people in the club," the club said: "Since he joined Hertha BSC, all decisions have been made unanimously in the advisory board.
We will ask him about it.”
Hertha defeat at the bottom
The next desolate performance of the Korkut team last weekend in a 1-2 draw at bottom Greuther Fürth relentlessly opened the eyes of the hitherto rather hapless coach of the club stuck in permanent crisis.
A change in mentality is needed at Hertha - and quickly, Korkut stated after a 45-minute endurance run on Sunday morning at a media conference on the Olympic grounds.
Korkut called for an “absolute focus” in the relegation battle.
After five league games without a win and just one point clear of being relegated, the 47-year-old's message to his players was surprising enough.
After all, the coach only asked the pros to take things for granted.
"Be realistic and accept the situation as it is," said Korkut, adding words that once again raised doubts about the character of some Hertha professionals.
One should "not already think of other things where one or the other might see themselves," said the trainer.
When asked, Korkut denied that he had spoken specifically about the selfishness of the stars.
But some moods don't seem to please him.
“We expect the team to get closer.
At the end of the day, when a team is in a difficult situation, they have to get out of it themselves, so every player has to regulate their sensitivities again, and also make sure that they submit to the team," he said.
The first half in Fürth, when the game was lost early, provided too many counterexamples.
The Hertha fans who had traveled with them were outraged and shouted “relegated, relegated”.
The Hertha coach himself described the upcoming games against RB Leipzig, SC Freiburg and Eintracht Frankfurt as “big chunks”.
The crux that Korkut experienced in the capital, like his predecessors from Pal Dardai to Bruno Labbadia to Jürgen Klinsmann, remains the mystery of a team that cannot be formed into one that keeps making rookie mistakes in stressful situations.
"It's extremely shitty that we're in a situation like this again," left-back Maximilian Mittelstädt described the current situation.
"It doesn't work without a fight.
We have to do a lot more,” said veteran Vladimir Darida.
Korkut is still on the verge of phrases and slogans.
The former professional speaks of quality that counts for nothing if the stakes are not right and his dislike of yelling or playing the jumping jack.
The fact that he is only allowed to fulfill his contract, which runs until the end of the season, is now being questioned in the west end of the capital.
The great doer Fredi Bobic is likely to stick to his first choice of coach after the separation from club icon Dardai, at least for the time being – despite the longing of many fans for Niko Kovac as Hertha saviour.
Sports director Arne Friedrich and midfielder Suat Serdar are now also infected with the corona virus.
The 24-year-old Serdar is in domestic isolation.
The 42-year-old Friedrich had already gone into quarantine on Saturday.
Friedrich has slight cold symptoms.
Marc Oliver Kempf ended his isolation period for this and returned to the first team training session of the week on Tuesday.
None of this and, above all, Windhorst's reckoning do anything to calm the situation in Berlin.