KFranz Reindl recently had a kind of home game in Cologne. The German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) and the State Association of North Rhine-Westphalia had invited to the conference on the (bad) condition of the ice rinks. The DEB President shook many hands, there were expressions of solidarity from the podium and applause from the hall, afterwards Reindl even had to fulfill the officials’ selfie requests. That’s how the 66-year-old likes it, German ice hockey as a big family.
For F +’s birthday, you can read all the articles on FAZ.NET for just 3 euros a month.
READ F + NOW
This week she comes together again, the men’s national team is in action at the Germany Cup in Krefeld, the women’s selection fights for their Olympic ticket in Füssen. There should be the next good news from the most recently successful national teams. Behind the scenes, however, it continues to rumble in the association. And the sound gets rougher. This is based on internal correspondence that the FAZ has received.
Manuel Hiemer, chairman of the state association of Saxony-Anhalt and one of Reindl’s greatest critics, demands in his letter to the presidium and the other state associations an “extraordinary general meeting with an accompanying vote of confidence”. The reason is the possible conflict of interests Reindl, who was for years honorary DEB president and at the same time paid managing director of a subsidiary.
Berthold Wipfler, here in 2014, harshly attacks Reindl’s critics.
:
Bild: Picture-Alliance
That was known as far as possible, but not the financial details that Der Spiegel made public in June. Both the DEB and the subsidiary had business ties with the Infront marketing agency. At the beginning of October, the ethics committee of the German Olympic Sports Confederation intervened. Chairman Thomas de Maizière advised “urgently” to “examine the facts in the DEB comprehensively and independently”. It must be clarified “whether there is hidden funding for the honorary function of the president. That would not be okay. ”In the meantime, the DEB has commissioned a law firm to investigate the situation.
At the same time, DEB Vice President Berthold Wipfler wrote to “dear ice hockey friends” and attacked the opposition. The topic is “gradually taking on grotesque features”, the allegations are based “on a fatal error on the other side”. Because Reindl was previously the head of the subsidiary, his then new double role when he took office as DEB President in 2014 was “discussed in detail with the legal advisor and the auditor”. Result: everything is clean.
“Old news”
That was also communicated to the members. Manuel Hiemer from Saxony-Anhalt replied on November 2nd. Wipfler had “not at all dealt with the core issue that needs to be clarified”. Marketer Infront is said to have kept the DEB subsidiary financially alive and thus secured Reindl’s executive salary. One of the questions: What influence did that have on Reindl as DEB President when he negotiated a marketing contract for the association with Infront?
Wipfler replied promptly, writing that “some of the questions from the LEV Sachsen-Anhalt serve research, are at the limits of fairness, are disrespectful, lead by tendentious press reports and are characterized by poor knowledge”. Saxony-Anhalt is only one “of more than a hundred members of the DEB eV”, he wonders whether other state associations would even join the questions, some are “yesterday’s news”. In addition, there were offers for talks that the other side refused.
Hendrik Ansink, head of the Hessian association, rejected that. Ansink is also part of the opposition; a few months ago he made a special trip to Munich, but Reindl canceled the meeting at short notice. Ice hockey is threatened with “severe damage”. In addition, there is “no obligation of the members to collect”, but “an obligation of the leadership to clarify the allegations”.
Jürgen Schubert from Herner EV agreed. He found it “strange” to have to ask: “Because I assumed that it would be a matter of course to clarify such things, which are in this room, by myself and emphatically in the interests of all members.” The DEB wanted itself on request, do not comment on correspondence or on the possible extraordinary general meeting.
.
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/COEQZX76YVAYHOAGOJ23LXJSNA)