In the championship season of 1930/31, reserve player Otto Fritze revealed in the local 8 Uhr-Blatt that the club was, once again, paying illegal bonuses and premiums, and that tickets for so-called exhibition matches against high-profile opponents had allegedly been printed several times with the same numbering in order to cheat the visiting club out of its share of gate receipts. The chief cashier resigned over the practice. The Berlin association then charged three allegedly especially well-paid players – Hanne Sobek, Willi Völker and Willi Kirsei – but nothing could be proved.\n\nSobek himself had already appeared before the association court shortly after his 1925 move from Alemannia 90 to Hertha, when Hertha tried to circumvent the mandatory one-year ban and fielded the national player in a friendly under the alias Erich Poppe.
Unsurprisingly, that was found out. While the player escaped with a warning, Hertha had to pay a fine equivalent to the gate receipts from the match.
