Handball Bundesliga team HSV Hamburg has presented its new management team. In the future, Christian Hüneburg as managing director and former national goalkeeper Johannes Bitter as sports director will steer the fortunes of the Hanseatic League. The duo is complemented by the chairman of the supervisory board Wilken Möller and the club president Kay Spanger.
“I do everything except sports,” said Hüneburg when he was introduced. The 49-year-old most recently worked as managing director for the Bundesliga volleyball team SSC Palmberg Schwerin and as chief financial officer at the second division soccer team FC Hansa Rostock.
The realignment became necessary after the HSVH only received the license for the current season after millions in donations from sponsors and a final decision by the sports court. As a result, the executive committee around Marc Evermann and former coach Martin Schwalb said goodbye. Then there was the separation from the previous managing director Sebastian Frecke.
Consolidation is an “ongoing theme”
Hüneburg described himself as a “licensing specialist” who stood for transparency, openness and cost-effectiveness. His goal is to make the club “economically viable” and “give the sport the opportunity to invest.” He did not give a specific period of time in which this should be achieved. The balance sheet is currently “still in a slump. The issue of consolidation is a permanent one that will accompany us over the next few years.”
Johannes Bitter, who ended his active career last week at the age of 42, outlined the club’s sporting goals. The former national goalkeeper wants it to be a little higher than ninth place like in the previous series: “We don’t want to be a training club for the next ten years.”
