Hertha BSC: Bobic’s dismissal shows how strong football fans can become

football column

Fredi Bobic is a man of the so-called football establishment. Men like him are basically “above any doubt”.

With this phrase, at least, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf characterized the competence profiles of Bayern boss Oliver Kahn, ex-Bayern board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, BVB consultant Matthias Sammer, “Red Bull” managing director Oliver Mintzlaff and Rudi Völler, long-time managing director of Bayer Leverkusen. These five old white men belonged to the “DFB task force” who, together with Hans-Joachim Watzke, represent the top flight of the establishment in German football.

Fan researcher Harald LangeImage: University of Würzburg

Men like this possess at least two important things. First: power. And second: networks. Sometimes this network also includes employees who work in secret and usually have the experience and expertise that is required for the job in question.

Immediately after his commitment in Berlin, Bobic brought seven such highly paid helpers with him and placed them in various positions. In addition, these powerful men of football such as Bobic, Watzke or Völler have the keys and place cards to the equally important back rooms where strategic decisions are made around football.

In Berlin, the President of Herta BSC, the former Ultra Kay Bernstein, who definitely does not come from the circles of this establishment, announced a remarkable decision. Fredi Bobic, once the supposed success manager at Eintracht Frankfurt, was quietly thrown out the door last weekend.

Regardless of the fact that this man, a few weeks earlier, was traded on the DFB networks as the savior of football’s future. He should succeed Bierhoff and give the association a new image in terms of sport. He would also have been responsible for putting the men’s national team back on the road to success.

The association would probably have wanted to pay a fee to Hertha for this. At least this demand from Berliners had already been pushed through in advance and discussed intensively. Now Hertha is paying the fired manager a lavish severance payment and Bobic is unemployed for the time being.

Bobic successor brings passion for Hertha

This story is a wonderful reflection of the football business. Bobic’s job is now done by someone else. Someone who has little experience as a prominent sports manager, but is a Hertha man with heart and soul. The new sports director “Zecke” Neuendorf is certainly not part of the football establishment. He was selected for the post by those responsible at Hertha for completely different reasons. Basically, he’s one of us. He brings identification with him and that’s exactly what the fans are happy about.

Andreas “Zecke” Neuendorf is head of the licensed player division at Hertha after the Bobic exit. Image: dpa central image / Soeren Stache

Bobic could now seamlessly hire the DFB. After all, nothing has changed in his skill profile and his talent as a football manager. The only thing missing is the power and tailwind he has enjoyed as an established figure in the football establishment.

The clubs’ backroom game could become more difficult

The dismissal scratches this image and stands in the way of a quick new commitment. Now even the DFB can no longer afford this man, because now even the most naïve would no longer want to believe that Fredi Bobic is beyond all doubt.

I mean, the courage that Kay Bernstein has shown as president in Berlin points to a counter-movement to establishment football. The powerful men have not been “above any doubt” for many years.

Criticism of commercial football ultimately scratches the power of such alpha animals, and in the future they will find it difficult to play the game according to their backroom rules wherever the fans can have a say and elect and support their presidents.