Alfons Hörmann no longer has a future in German sport. The President of the German Sports Confederation (DOSB) announced on Wednesday evening that he and his presidium would clear the way for early elections at the general meeting on the first weekend in December. He said that he would not run for office then.
Whether Hörmann and his presidium have it in their hands to prepare an orderly transition, to support the Olympic team in Tokyo and to get the preparations for the Beijing Winter Games off the ground at the beginning of 2022, as they announced, seems questionable. When Hörmann wants to accompany the Olympic team as head of the delegation to the Summer Games in Tokyo as planned, he flies as a lame duck.
With the readiness for a new election, which implies resignation at the latest the day before, the Presidium of the DOSB follows a recommendation of its ethics committee. The committee headed by former Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière had to deal with Hörmann’s management style and manners.
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“In the past seven and a half years as a team we have given everything to professionalize the DOSB and national sport and give it a strong voice,” Hörmann said in a press release from his association: “We have achieved a lot together. Nevertheless, I would like to clear the way for a fresh start at the top in December. The DOSB and the entire sport need strength and unity in order to continue to operate successfully and to represent the interests of the member organizations.
My drive in volunteering was and is to strengthen the social power of sport, to create optimal conditions for all athletes and to actively represent and live the values of sport: fairness, respect and performance. The well-being of German sport must always take precedence over the ambitions and goals of the people involved. Therefore, it is now a matter of organizing an orderly transition that ensures stability for the DOSB and its member organizations and at the same time enables fair competition for people and concepts for the DOSB. “
“Self-reflection, demotivation and rumors”
The 60-year-old manager and President of the German Ski Association Hörmann succeeded Thomas Bach, who had been elected President of the International Olympic Committee, in December 2013. The man from the Allgäu is the president of the top sport reform of the DOSB; During his tenure, the Federal Minister of the Interior increased top-class sports funding to almost 300 million euros a year.
The resignation from office became inevitable when Hörmann seemed to be trying to avoid the consequences of the ethics committee’s recommendation with the vote of confidence at an extraordinary general meeting in September. State sports federations and athletes’ representatives opposed it, the top federations seemed to be torn apart in Hörmann’s followers.
De Maizière had made the report of the ethics committee on the President and his Presidium, which according to the statutes goes to the Presidium, public with the completion on June 7th. The public and members of the DOSB received a condensed description that the umbrella organization of German sport, which is also the National Olympic Committee, has to improve its relationship with member associations, partners and sponsors, work on climate and acceptance and change its management style.
De Maizière and his commission wrote that there was self-reflection, demotivation and rumors, dissatisfaction and ambiguity in the DOSB. It couldn’t go on like this. The devastating impression of the work of the association was reinforced by Hörmann’s predecessor Bach, who expressed his concern about the credibility of the association and its functionality in a letter. The relationship between the DOSB and the IOC needs to be healed, and the association’s position in international sports organizations has continued to suffer. Consequences from the work of the ethics committee should be drawn before the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
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Kaweh Niroomand, Vice President Finance, announced that, like Hörmann, he would not run again. In the last few weeks it has become clear that the common basis and unity necessary for success is no longer given in parts of German sport.
New start through new elections
When the anonymous letter from the DOSB workforce became known, which triggered the investigation by the ethics committee, Hörmann expressed its “unreserved trust and our full support”. Athletes spokesman Jonathan Koch distanced himself from the statement; thereupon the DOSB also removed the names of the other six members of the presidency from the publication on its website. The DOSB ethics committee is also involved in this process.
On May 6th, an anonymous letter became known in which employees at the DOSB headquarters in Frankfurt complained about a “culture of fear” and blamed Hörmann in particular for a lack of fair play and respect. The ethics committee found: “Only an early election of the entire presidium can lead to a permanent foundation of trust in German sport.”
Hörmann and his presidium now write that in discussions with the three groups of associations, leading associations, state sports federations and associations with special tasks, a fundamental new beginning should be made possible with the new elections now brought forward. With the decision for early elections in December, there is now clarity on how to proceed.
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