DFB Vice President Rainer Koch
Source: dpa/Andreas Gora
The DFB has not had a regular president for almost a year. A new one will be elected on Friday. Shortly before that, three ex-presidents get together and write a letter. It is aimed at a man they call “Split Mushroom”.
KShortly before the groundbreaking Bundestag of the German Football Association, three former DFB presidents demanded the departure of the highly controversial top man Rainer Koch from all offices. “End the Koch system and ensure a real new start in the DFB,” wrote Fritz Keller (64), Reinhard Grindel (60) and Theo Zwanziger (76) in a statement available to the German Press Agency to the delegates who Friday at the DFB Bundestag primarily elect a new president. Koch (63) is up for election for the position of Vice President.
“My experience is: Koch is a crackpot, he lives on intrigue. His system is that of conjuring up false enemy images, of exerting pressure. I’m sure the delegates know from their own experience what I’m talking about,” said Keller, who had to resign in May 2021 after a very personal dispute with Koch. During a DFB meeting, Keller addressed Koch by the name of a Nazi judge.
The differences with intrigues and intrigues within the DFB management level have been a burden on the association for years. The current interim president Koch has been on the DFB executive committee since 2007 and has seen four DFB presidents. Critics see the 63-year-old from Poing as partly responsible for a number of crises.
“The statements – especially from Reinhard Grindel and Fritz Keller – are absurd. These are general, defamatory statements without any facts or substance,” Koch said on Monday at the request of the German Press Agency. “The fact is that only personal misconduct led to both resignations. For a long time I have been targeted with maliciously spread falsehoods.”
“Summoning of false enemy images”
In the past week, the DFB had another visit from investigators from the Frankfurt/Main public prosecutor’s office. It was about an alleged “bogus contract” with a communications consultant whose (expensive) role in the DFB thicket of recent years remains opaque. Here, too, Koch is accused of playing a decisive role, but the official who represents the DFB in the Executive Committee of the European Football Union Uefa is not part of the investigation.
“With the intrigues against people, it has always been accepted that the integrity of the DFB was damaged at the same time. That has to come to an end,” said Grindel, who had to resign in 2019 after accepting a watch from a Ukrainian official. Together, the ex-president trio calls for a “change in the culture of the association. Power games, intrigues and indiscretions must be a thing of the past.”
For the DFB Bundestag, the starting position is somewhat complex – Koch’s future does not only depend on his own choice. Bernd Neuendorf (60), who is supported by the amateur representatives, and former Schalke CFO Peter Peters (59) are applying for the presidency as a candidate sponsored by professional football. Under no circumstances does Peters want to continue with Koch in the presidency, Neuendorf has not distanced himself. On the contrary: the former state secretary in the NRW family ministry is also assigned to the Koch camp. Both reject the allegation of prior agreements.
Flick hopes for a fresh start
The conference of state and regional association presidents announced via the DFB on Monday after a meeting that they disapproved of the statement by the three ex-presidents. “The declaration is aimed exclusively at damaging Rainer Koch as a person,” it said. “The members of the conference introduce themselves to Rainer Koch.”
The “Kicker” reported on Sunday evening from a meeting of Peters, Keller, Grindel and Zwanziger in Frankfurt/Main. Wolfgang Niersbach (71), whose term of office ended in 2015 because of the summer fairy tale affair, was not there. The ex-presidents do not have a vote in the Bundestag.
The statements by Hansi Flick also made it clear how stressful the situation is for the entire association. “I hope that there will be a new beginning,” said the national coach on Sunday evening on ARD. It would “do everyone good if positive news came again”. Flick did not say in the ARD “Sportschau” on Sunday evening which of the candidates he would like to lead the association.
