Dhe country heads of the DFB said good-bye in a good mood from the lobby of their Hamburg conference hotel. In the difficult search for new management staff for the ailing German Football Association, the amateur representatives have made good progress according to their own statements. Concrete names are said not to have been discussed. The newcomer to the top of the DFB should be able to make more decisions again – and come from the amateur field. The association will also continue to occupy themselves with reform proposals from outside.
The term of office of Fritz Keller, who resigned in May after internal crises, was marked by “discrepancies,” said Uwe Döring, President of the Schleswig-Holstein State Association on Sunday. “We have to see that we can strengthen the role of the president. Our goal must be to find people who can guarantee in advance that things will work together. “
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The DFB announced that there was a “clear consensus” on the motion to amend the statutes of the DFB President for more policy authority, which had been withdrawn from Keller. “The conference therefore proposes that the general secretary be appointed by the DFB Presidium on the proposal of the DFB President.” Heike Ullrich is currently the first woman to lead the DFB division on an interim basis.
Elections will be held at the DFB Bundestag on March 11, 2022. Statute proposals must be submitted by January 13, and candidacies for the offices of DFB President and Treasurer by February 10. Nobody has yet publicly announced their ambitions. “It has to grow up together,” said Hans-Dieter Drewitz, President of the Southwest German Association. “We want to draw from the area of amateurs.”
“Don’t argue all the time”
First of all, the presidents of the five regional associations should now seek a conversation with the German Football League’s professional camp, but without the current DFB vice-presidents Rainer Koch and Ronny Zimmermann (president and vice-president of the Southern German Association). In the past, many a controversy over personnel issues had ignited between professionals and amateurs – most recently when the amateurs, with their majority vote in the Bundestag, pushed Keller’s predecessor Reinhard Grindel through as a candidate.
DFL supervisory board chairman Peter Peters, with whom Koch currently leads the DFB temporarily, has already been “informed about the results of the conference,” said Koch. The 62-year-old, who no longer wants to run for the office of 1st Vice President, replied to media reports: “It is simply not true that we argue all the time.”
Before the conference in the Hanseatic city, Bernd Neuendorf’s name had been mentioned by the Middle Rhine Association for a possible candidacy. “Now simply to say, xy becomes president, does not help at all,” said Döring. “We talked specifically about which positions are to be filled and how we want to find candidates.”
The DFB also announced that one focus of the new DFB management should be to achieve more diversity in the association and in German football. This is an express demand from the conference, “among other things connected with the objective of promoting and improving the representation of women in the leading bodies”.
There was no further discussion with representatives of the “Football can do more” initiative, which attracted a lot of attention in the summer. The initiators led by national goalkeeper Almuth Schult are demanding, among other things, a quota for football associations of at least 30 percent women in management positions.
The former functionary and former national player Katja Kraus spoke out in favor of dual leadership at the DFB: “In view of the complexity of the task, I consider this a necessary solution,” said the former board member of Hamburger SV the news portal “t-online”. “It takes a strong team if you want to develop the social impact of football and at the same time shape a future vision for the association.” According to dpa information, the initiative is planning further publications in the coming weeks Participate at the top of the DFB.
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