Now it is official: Pal Dardai will definitely not be the new president of the Berlin second division football club Hertha BSCThe club’s record player and former coach has decided not to run for office. Contrary to what he himself once suggested, he will not be running for election in November.
The rumor that Dardai will become president of the club and thus successor of the late Kay Bernstein The news of the club’s decision to become head coach arose in the spring – shortly after the Hungarian was informed that his contract as head coach would not be extended. Dardai is said to have then announced that he would become president and that his first step would be to Sports Director Benjamin Weber as well as Andreas “Zecke” Neuendorf, the director of the academy and licensed players department, will be dismissed.
This was probably not meant seriously, but rather due to the excitement over his departure as head coach. Pal Dardai is not on the list of presidential candidates that Hertha published on Thursday evening.
On November 17th (City Cube, Messe Berlin) the club’s members will elect the new executive committee for the next four years. It will consist of the president, his deputy and at least five and a maximum of seven other ordinary members.
© imago images/Bernd König
There are five candidates for the office of president. Four of them have been known for some time:
- Fabian Drescher41, has been acting in the office since Kay Bernstein’s death in January this year, having previously served as his deputy. The lawyer had already announced his candidacy at the General meeting in May officially announced.
- Uwe Dinnebier61, is the founder of the Dinnebier Group, which includes more than 25 car dealerships. The group recently had a turnover of 750 million euros.
- Stepan Timoshin23, has also been successful as an entrepreneur despite his young age. The tabloids call him a “sneaker millionaire” because he became rich by reselling limited edition sneakers. He has since sold his company to Deichmann, reportedly for just under 30 million euros.
- Wolfgang Sidka70, was a former player of Hertha BSC (184 Bundesliga games between 1971 and 1980, 24 goals) and after his active career worked as a trainer for a long time (including at Werder Bremen). From 2021 to 2023, Sidka was president of VfB Oldenburg, another of his former clubs. During this time, the club was promoted to the third division.
- The fifth candidate is Olaf Brandt56, runs a snack bar in the immediate vicinity of the Olympic Stadium and probably doesn’t even have an outside chance.
There are also five candidates running for the office of Vice President.
- Anne Noske40, is something of a candidate for the current executive committee, to which she was elected in October of last year. Under her maiden name Grubert, Noske worked in Hertha’s media department for twelve years (until 2016).
- Stepan Timoshin is also running for the office of Vice President in case he is not elected President.
- Marko Pantelic45, announced his candidacy a few weeks ago. The Serbian striker played 114 Bundesliga games for Hertha BSC from 2006 to 2009.
- Marvin Brumme39, is seeking a seat on the executive committee for the third time. The bricklayer and concrete construction master ran as a presidential candidate in 2022 against Kay Bernstein and Frank Steffel. Last year he wanted to become a simple member of the executive committee. Both times he did not achieve the necessary majority.
- Ferhat Dogru41, is a graduate in sports management and managing director of a company in the fitness industry. Until the summer of 2023, he was also captain of Hertha’s third team.
© IMAGO/Matthias Koch
Of the current six ordinary members of the Executive Board, five are running for re-election: Hans-Joachim Bläsing, Peer Mock-Stümer, Anne Noske (if she is not elected Vice President), Saravanan Sundaram and Ralf Thaeter. Anne Jüngermann announced in the spring that she would no longer run for office for personal reasons.
In addition, there are 14 other candidates for the presidency: Oliver Behncke, Knut Beyer, Felix Dalstein, Mario Doerwald, Markus Gruhn, Marco Hennig, Kamil-Adrian Humen, Oliver Kelm, Frank Kimms, Guido Kurth, Robert Linthe, Niklas Lohse, Torben Schattling and André Stelter.
If Fabian Drescher is not elected president, he will also stand for election as a regular member of the executive committee. The same applies to Ferhat Dogru and Marko Pantelic if they fail in the vote for the office of vice president.
