Hoeness harnesses Hertha potential

Final point
Lying third in Group C, the German side need just one point to be sure of reaching the last 32 of the UEFA Cup. With the team's debts standing at a worrying €34m, European progress is vital for Hertha - and Hoeness, brother of FC Bayern München general manager Uli Hoeness, is feeling confident.

'Not better than us'
"We have a very good chance of keeping our UEFA Cup dreams alive," he told uefa.com. "We can beat any team at our Olympiastadion. I am not saying we are big favourites in this competition, but the other clubs involved are definitely not better than us."

Dramatic rise
When Hoeness began work at Hertha in 1996, they were still in the second division. In little time at all, he had led them to promotion to the Bundesliga and regular appearances in the UEFA Cup and, once, the UEFA Champions League. Now he wants to see more of the same.

Mid-term plan
"Believe me, this development was quicker than I expected," he said. "In the mid-term we want to establish ourselves as a top side in the UEFA Champions League, but we will need time and patience if we want to be that big. I am thinking about a period between three and five years."

Academy investment
With money increasingly tight, much of the club's hopes depend on the success of their academy. "We have always tried to invest in our team, in our youth academy and in our infrastructure," said Hoeness. "It is extremely valuable and essential for us.

Young hopefuls
"Currently, 12 graduates from our youth teams are in coach Falko Götz's squad," he added. "This is an impressive statement. Hertha have 37 youth internationals at the moment. No other German club can compete with us in this respect. Our youth academy is our future and we spend a lot on it."

Home base
That investment has given Hertha facilities to be proud of. Hoeness continued: "It means a lot to us that our national-team coach Jürgen Klinsmann was so impressed by our training ground that he will use it as Germany's base during the [2006 FIFA] World Cup."

Big investments
However, such quality does not come cheap, as the club's debts attest. Not that Hoeness is overly concerned about the financial problems. "We have invested in a lot of big developments," he said. "The renovation of the Olympiastadion took a long time so we could not sell as many tickets as usual.

No crisis
"Then we had the crisis of [television rights holders] Kirch Media here in Germany," he went on. "Of course, we have made mistakes too, but we have also corrected them. For the moment we need to think about every penny we spend, but we are not talking about the club's existence being under threat." A good result against Steaua would arguably ease those money worries a little more.