Hoffen auf die Bundesliga: Hoffenheim on the Rise

Richard Seamon

Stories of rich men bankrolling football clubs for a hobby are nothing new. Doing it and just maintaining an expensive status quo, which appears to be the thing in the English Premier League at the moment, smacks of just another form of willy-waving, as ridiculous sums are spent without any form of strategy being involved except that of trying to outdo the nearest big name rival. Doing it because you care about the club involved to the point of passion is rarer. Jack Haywood at Wolves and Jack Walker at Blackburn spring to mind as generous benefactors who fulfil that criteria and their money re-vitalised faded giants into something of their former glory, albeit briefly.

But real commitment comes when you back the cash and passion up with ideas and action in order to attempt the hitherto impossible. One of the first articles I wrote for this site a while back was on the Scottish small-town (big village) club Gretna and their rapid rise from English non-league obscurity to playing with the big boys in the SPL in 5 years. Their success (forget being permanently rooted to the bottom of the league for a moment) was owed largely to the munificence and vision of one man, Carlisle based businessman and football philanthropist, Brooks Mileson. As well as bringing Premier League status players to a tiny club, he’s established a top-class academy to try and continue the supply. As rags to riches stories go, it’s right up there and it could continue if by some miracle they avoid relegation and Brooks makes a full recovery from his recent brain infection.

These fairy stories look pretty impressive, even more so because of the four “division” top flight league system we employ in England and Scotland but that’s not to say they don’t happen with just as much impact in other countries. Germany’s got one too; maybe not quite as dramatic as Gretna’s but it’s making just as many waves.

In 1990, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, a small-town (about the same size as Gretna) amateur team from Germany’s south-west midlands, were relegated from the 6^th tier of the German league system to the Baden-Würtemberg A-Liga (for the uninitiated, the German leagues currently fragment into regional feeder divisions at the third tier - fourth next season after the 3.Bundesliga is created - unlike the English league system that goes provincial at the 6^th level). The club was in disarray. Step forward local businessman Dietmar Hopp, who’d played for the club in his youth. He made a call to the club’s president saying that things couldn’t carry on the way they were and that he wanted to help.  Hopp wasn’t short of a bob or two, having co-founded the business software firm SAP (Forbes currently ranks him at 698^th wealthiest person on earth). SAP are known for providing “business solutions” but there’s no software on earth capable of boosting the ambitions of a lowly football club; this would be a challenge.

Big money is not a cure-all. As a rule, miniscule, mainly amateur clubs can’t just buy in big name players unless they’re winding down at the end of their careers. In any case, by that stage they’re really just sideshow crowd-pullers brought in to generate a bit of extra cash so you can get that dodgy roof over the main stand fixed (think Jimmy Greaves at Barnet or Gazza just about anywhere). They won’t necessarily get you promoted and if you do go up, they probably won’t be around to help you capitalise on it. Anyway, crowds soon get tired of watching a succession of old-timers creaking around midfield without any trophies in the cabinet as a result and as a business decision, it’s definitely not good value for money. How many times was Gazza signed but never got, or bothered, to lace his boots up (if he could find them in the first place)? Coincidence or not, much of Hopp’s existing business was built around corporate planning and strategy, so he was quite able to appreciate that this might be a long haul and that early investment in the correct areas would reap dividends later. There’s no greater thrill either to a supporter to feel that he or she is part of something exciting and seeing a side grow from nothing breeds a special kind of family loyalty and community identity.

A cash injection will always initiate a morale boost and provide a degree of motivation and two immediate promotions resulted. There followed a few years of consolidation but thankfully no disasters. The club opened a new stadium and training facility, named in honour of the proprietor in 1999, and christened it with a visit from a star-studded Bayern München (Hopp and Der Kaiser play a bit of golf together). The new facilities obviously paid off as in 2000 they were promoted as champions to the 4^th tier Oberliga Baden-Württemberg.

Rather than expend funds on players, which they could now do more effectively because of their new-found position, the club concentrated on its infrastructure. Respected former Bayern and Cologne player Hansi Flick (now No 2 with the German national team) was recruited as coach from FC Bammental and they won promotion at the first attempt. Hoffenheim were now on the move and the impossible didn’t quite seem so improbable any longer.

The Regionalliga Süd proved a slightly harder nut to crack at first attempt and they only managed 13^th in their first season which was certainly not a disgrace. Success continued as the team strengthened and they never went as low as that again under Flick. In the 2003-4 season they entered the German Cup for the first time, reaching the last 8. On the way they proved their potential by disposing of two 2.Bundesliga sides and also Bayer Leverkusen from the top flight.

Flick departed in 2005 and was replaced for 2006 with Ralf Rangnick, previously manager of Schalke and VFB Stuttgart, on a five year contract. Around this time Hopp suffered his only setback. He was also a financial supporter of near-neighbours SV Astoria Walldorf and he opened negotiations between Hoffenheim, Walldorf and SV Sandhausen, proposing a merger between the three to form a new regional superclub, FC Heidelberg 06, capable of competing in the Bundesliga. He would also fund a new 30,000 seater stadium as a base. The initiative failed as Sandhausen and Walldorf weren’t entirely onside and they couldn’t agree on a site for the new stadium.

It’s not proved to be a major setback as success continued with a second place finish at the end of the 06-07 season and earned Hoffenheim promotion to the 2.Bundesliga. The old stadium has been expanded to hold about 6,500 and an arrangement has been made with Karlsruhe to hold home games there if necessary. Money has been spent on some new players including the Croatian international Tomislav Marić and the promising Brazilian provider Eduardo. The new Dietmar Hopp Stadion is well underway a couple of miles down the A6 in the neighbouring town of Sinsheim and should be ready for 2009. What’s more, as I write this the club is just four points behind division leaders Borussia Mönchengladbach in 6^th position (although they were knocked out of the cup, once again at the quarter-final stage, by Borussia Dortmund earlier in the week). Everything seems to coming together very nicely.

Hopp’s strategy of slowly slowly catchee monkey has paid off and it’s one that many clubs could learn from. Yes, he’s one of the richest men in Germany and the club’s success has attracted a lot of detractors and negative comment from their former lower league peers as a result but he’s noticeably resisted the urge to splash out millions on costly and spectacular failures, preferring to grow and nurture. Whether or not he’s employed the very same business methods his company thrives on it is plainly obvious he’s done his research.

With typical Teutonic efficiency, nothing has gone very wrong. The youth development programme and training schemes he’s been able to put in place are said to be better than those of a lot of the Bundesliga sides and that should either guarantee a steady supply of talent or provide a decent revenue stream from selling on. Bayern München manager-in-waiting, Jürgen Klinsmann, well-known for having a unique approach to management, is a big fan of Hopp’s structured methodology, despite having Bernhard Peters, the technical director of the World Champion German hockey squad lured to Hoffenheim from under his nose by Hopp while he was national team manager. The big boys should look out.           

Finally, it wouldn’t be right for me to complete an article without a reference to one person in particular and he’s cropped up yet again. How does he do it? Last year, promising young Nigerian international Chinedu Ogbuke was playing for Lyn Oslo in Norway while being linked to several big European clubs. A deal with Lokomotiv Moscow fell through when the Moscow club’s hierarchy was unceremoniously dumped and ‘Edu’ (as he is better known) went off to train with Pompey for a couple of weeks. Harry Redknapp was impressed but bothered about work permits so Edu ended up with Hoffenheim where he’s started well. It’s rumoured that Harry wants him back at Fratton Park, so watch that space.