A Conversation With the Boss

The new issue of Eisern! magazine includes an expansive interview with club President, Dirk Zingler. In this exclusive English extract, he talks of going from a fan to becoming president, and tells the inside story of the rebuilding of the Alte Försterei.

Issue 10 also contains articles about Kevin Vogt, Sarah Abu Sabbah and Athanasia Moraitou, two free posters as well as much, much more, and is available in all newsagents, Union’s Zeughaus stores, as well as online.

You stated that your interest in football was always rather limited. So how exactly did you become club president?

I was just a regular Union fan and later, through my company, became a sponsor of the club. The club’s management were in a dispute and invited a group of fans to a meeting – I attended one of these meetings and realised that no, it’s simply not going to work. None of the committee came from the region and not one was a businessman. You cannot directly blame them for that, but rather the people from here who did not dare to take responsibility.

That was in the autumn of 2003. I then approached other sponsors from the region who had ties to the club. We eventually founded the Wirtschaftsrat (Economic Council) outside of the club, comprising of eleven companies, in order to provide financial expertise. In May 2004, I was elected by the AGM to the supervisory board. The president at the time came from northern Germany and wanted to resign from the office. He had only covered for the president who had left the club during the dispute. My colleagues on the supervisory board enquired if I would like to do it. I went home and discussed it over with my family and a few people who are important to me. I then said: and then said: “I’ll give it a try.” On the 1st July 2004, at the age of 39, I became club president.

What was the situation like at the club back then?

It was very difficult. We had to provide a liquidity reserve of €1.4 million for the licence during the summer break of 2004. There was the ‘Bleed for Union’ blood donation campaign, where fees from donations were made available to the club. The city put on a concert; we played a friendly, ‘Blutsbrüder’, against FC St. Pauli, and sponsors made advanced payments. All in all, we raised 900,000 euros from all of the activities, but there was still a large amount lacking and we only had a few days left. I went to the bank and took out a personal loan. Michael Kölmel was willing to match the amount which I had raised and that enabled us to close the gap.

That’s how it all began in 2004. My wife asked me at that time if I had lost my marbles – after all, it was an honorary position. That continued for a few years, I repeatedly had to put up guarantees and was personally liable. Members of the board often received warning letters from the tax office because the club was frequently not able to meet its financial obligations on time. For many years, the situation was a threat to our very existence, and this wasn’t always pleasant for us as a voluntary board. We did not know if things would end well.

Slowly the situation started to improve after we decided to rebuild the stadium in 2008. That provided the club and the people with an incredible amount of courage and strength – it breathed a second wind into us. 2,500 people helped out back then.

How did all of this come about?

We knew that to be successful in professional football we needed our own stadium to play in. We needed all of the associated rights – catering, marketing and sponsoring etc. Nobody within the state government at the time was interested in modernising the Stadion An der Alten Försterei. The current head of the Berlin State Sports Federation, Thomas Härtel, was then state secretary for sports. He wanted us to play in either the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark or the Olympiastadion, that Berlin did not need two football stadiums. So, we had to try to solve it at the district level.

There was a crucial meeting in which Köpenick’s city councillor for construction, Schneider, suddenly said: “We’ll give you the stadium and you’ll do everything yourselves. Maybe we’ll give you 600,000 euros on top of that, a construction cost subsidy.” However, in reality, we needed millions.

I went out into the hallway with my fellow board member, Dirk Thieme, in the town hall in Treptow: “How are we going to do this once it belongs to us? We have no money, crippling debts, and have 4,000 spectators.” Finally, we said: “Never mind, we’ll do it. You’re a civil engineer, Jörg Hinze and I are in the building materials industry – if anyone can do it, we can. We’ll build the stadium ourselves. We’ll call on the people to join us.” Then, we went back inside and told Schneider: “We’re doing it.” Many members of the current board and the supervisory board supported during this phase with personal guarantees and loans. Without them, none of this would have been possible. Today, I am convinced that this was one of the most important decisions that our club has made in its history. Everything which we do today is based upon that decision – including our match in Madrid against Real a year ago. A club always needs a home. Union have been playing football in the same place since 1920, for over a hundred years. If we are firmly and permanently rooted in our region, and we are now for generations to come thanks to our ownership of our stadium, then we as a club are indestructible.

Did you always make the important decisions rationally as a businessman?

If you always make decisions rationally you wouldn’t make many decisions at all. This decision in the hallway of Treptow town hall was an instant decision. I believe that Schneider himself made an uncoordinated proposal in the district at that moment. If we had gone back to Schneider and said, “We need to call a meeting of the executive committee first and discuss it,” he would have also had to consult with other committees or city councils – then he might have been caught and it wouldn’t have happened. You have to be able to walk through an open door. For me, that’s also an entrepreneurial action.

Yet, you personally took a huge risk – was there a plan behind it all?

Not only did I take a risk, but so did the entirety of the club’s management. In the end, you must believe in it and stick to the right priorities. Our club has been part of this region since 1906, so you must be brave. The bond between the club and the people here is crucial. If you take it seriously and do everything first and foremost for these people, they will support you and give you strength for your own actions. That’s how we’ve done it over the past 20 years and been successful.

Was the club’s existence under threat back then?

We repeatedly dealt with the scenario of filing for bankruptcy, primarily because we did not want to get into the area of delayed bankruptcy filing. We considered whether it would make more sense to found 2. FC Union Berlin because the first one may go bankrupt. However, only a legal entity can go bankrupt, not the actual roots within the people themselves. In the end, we decided against it because insolvency would have meant a huge loss of belief for the people who placed their trust in the club, lent us money and got involved. So, we, the people at the top of the club, took a huge risk ourselves. That’s why we may have taken a different path from the other eastern clubs. In the nineties, there were clubs like Hansa Rostock, Energie Cottbus and Dynamo Dresden which were miles ahead of us – they were playing in the first or second division at the time.

You went from being almost bankrupt to the UEFA Champions League. How can such a feat be possible?

By staying true to yourself. We are professionals and want to be amongst the best in our business. I was in Madrid with the same people whom I was with 20 years ago in Falkensee-Finkenkrug. If you stick to these core ideals, the ups and downs in football are not a problem.

This extract is taken from a complete interview by Michael Maier. Our thanks go to him and the editorial team.