Hertha Berlin president Kay Bernstein aims to bring stability to the ailing club before thinking of possible bigger aims.
Hertha are currently ranked 15th and in relegation danger, just as in the past season when they only stayed in the top flight via a play-off.
That was far from the ambition of the club’s outgoing investor Lars Windhorst who had poured €374 million ($387 million) into Hertha since 2019, with the aim of making them a Big City Club.
But Windhorst is about to sell his shares to new investors 777 Partners, and Bernstein – a former ultra fan of the club – has succeeded Werner Gegenbauer as president in summer.
Bernstein told dpa that he wants Hertha to be a solid top flight club in the short and medium term “because first of all we have to so our homework of completing the internal restructuring of the business” – before possibly thinking bigger again.
“At some point the foundations will be in place and we can start to rebuild the house,” he said. “We are in Berlin, so it can be a very tall skyscraper. But it can also be a solid house with three floors, if it makes all the residents happy.”
Plans for a new stadium and the partnership with new investors are some of the big tasks ahead.
“We have to be patient and continue on this path that we have now embarked on. Then it will be successful,” Bernstein said.
“It will be a process to make it clear to the people that we have to align our expectations with reality.”