Excited for the future: HSV board dreams of Europe! | OneFootball

HSV’s last appearance in European competition now dates back 16 years. The memories of that time feel today like they came from another world.

On April 29, 2010, the 2-1 defeat at FC Fulham in the legendary Craven Cottage sealed HSV’s elimination in the Europa League semifinals. That meant the club missed out on reaching the final in its own stadium, which took place just a few weeks later.

What followed was an unprecedented collapse. After years of battling relegation, the drop in 2018, and seven long and painful seasons in the 2. Bundesliga, the long-awaited return to the top flight finally came in 2025. Now the club is supposed to work its way back to former greatness step by step. In the short term, though, survival remains the only thing that matters. But HSV board member Eric Huwer is also looking at the club’s long-term development.

At a fan evening during the training camp in Oberlängenfeld, the 42-year-old spoke about the difficult years in the past and the new sense of optimism at HSV. “When I started, it was only about survival. It was only about securing the license for the next six to twelve months and somehow staying up,” Huwer recalled about his early days in October 2014.

Photo: Getty Images

HSV wants a 60,000-seat stadium!

Today, he said, the situation is completely different. “The past twelve years have been intense, but I have rarely looked forward to the next twelve years as much as I do now, because for quite some time you can feel that something is being built. The journey is really only just beginning,” the board member explained.

Huwer also expressed a fairly ambitious wish for the future. “Ideally, the development should continue on our own terms. In ten years, I’d already be happy if we crossed a border again and it wasn’t because of a training camp,” he said with a wink, alluding to possible international trips for HSV.

Until then, however, other tasks come first. The expansion of the Volksparkstadion and sporting stability in the Bundesliga are among the most important projects. Huwer sounded optimistic about the stadium renovation. He said the aim was to have a 60,000-seat stadium “within a period of twelve to 18 months.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.