BERLIN -- Some fans believe Hertha Berlin have been cursed since the 1960s. Shortly after the inauguration of the Bundesliga in 1963, Gunter Herzog, the new treasurer of the club, found out that they were in debt because Hertha had given players substantial signing fees to attract them to West Berlin. Since the league's officials were strictly auditing balance sheets at the time, Hertha were in trouble. To solve the issue, Herzog, who also owned a funeral parlor, printed 55,000 tickets, kept them off the books and hid them from the auditors in caskets. Hertha eventually got busted and were relegated as a punishment.
Hertha Berlin's Windhorst promised Bundesliga glory. So what went wrong?
