General meeting on Sunday
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Hertha President Fabian Drescher has drawn a critical conclusion to the season and has taken the sporting leadership of the Berlin second division club to task. “From our point of view, it was unsatisfactory,” said the 43-year-old at the Hertha general meeting about the current season. You “ran after” your own ambitions.
The results of the home games in particular “left a lot to be desired,” said Drescher the day after the 0-1 defeat against Holstein Kiel. In the home table, by far the most valuable team in the 2nd Bundesliga is only in 12th place. The Berliners had set a return to the upper house as their goal for the season. With three games left, promotion is practically no longer possible. Not even being in one of the top three places was not Hertha’s claim, emphasized Drescher.
“We have to state this reality clearly, without sugar-coating, without excuses,” said the lawyer. It is now up to coach Stefan Leitl and sports director Benjamin Weber to “draw the right conclusions and make the right decisions”. Leitl and Weber had already received a job promise for the coming season from managing director Peter Görlich.
Before Drescher’s speech, the team around captain Fabian Reese also presented themselves on stage in Berlin’s City Cube. The members gave friendly but restrained applause. “On behalf of the team, I would like to thank you for your support this season. You and we imagined this season to be different. We hope that you will continue to support us so much in the future. We are going to train soon and hope that you will have a good general meeting here,” said the 28-year-old, who is one of the best players in the league and leads the scorer ranking ahead of Karlsruhe’s Marvin Wanitzek.
In his lecture, Drescher also commented again on the recent riots at the away game in Dresden, which caused a lot of attention and discussion: “We stand for passion. We stand for diversity. And we stand for a lively, active fan culture. That is a central part of Hertha BSC. That is part of our identity. And it should stay that way in the future. But it is just as clear: violence has no place at Hertha BSC. No matter from which side. No matter what form. Because violence doesn’t just damage reputation “Above all, it harms our association.”
