Watzke outlines how the task force came across Völler: “There’s someone in the room who covers all the requirements.”
What: pa/Christopher Neundorf/Kirchner-Me
Hans-Joachim Watzke talks about the tasks of the new DFB director Rudi Völler. He sees his appointment as no alternative. He defends the composition of the all-male football task force, to which he himself belongs.
Hans-Joachim Watzke has defended the personnel constellation of the task force, with the help of which the German national soccer team should be more successful in the future. “When assembling this task force, it was not important that it was diverse. It was about bringing together as much football experience and quality as possible,” said the BVB boss to the “Spiegel”: “The men who are now part of it have already won many titles in different functions, they know which organizational structures are necessary for success arises. We need this know-how for the European Championships in our own country.”
The composition of the purely male body, the DFB President Bernd Neuendorf (61), the 63-year-old Watzke, the former Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge 67), the former DFB team boss and Leverkusen manager Rudi Völler (62) , Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn from FC Bayern (53), ex-DFB sports director Matthias Sammer (55) and ex-RB Leipzig managing director Oliver Mintzlaff (47) belong to the public, sometimes sharply criticized.
Among other things, the coach of the women’s national team of the DFB, Martin Voss-Tecklenburg, belonged to the group of prominent critics Taskforce said and added another aspect to the already widespread criticism. She would have liked to bring expertise from abroad to the committee: “I lack internationality a bit. It’s good for us to think outside the box.” When asked if she was also missing a woman on the commission, Voss-Tecklenburg replied: “I miss her anyway.”
Völler had been chosen as the new DFB director from among the task force. Watzke sees him as a strong contact for national coach Hansi Flick. “We wanted to give national coach Hansi Flick a person who is compatible with him, who knows how to work with a coach without taking away his strengths, who has already played the entire range of football,” said the chairman of the supervisory board of the German Football League (DFL) and Vice President of the German Football Association (DFB).
“Counterpart” important for working with Flick
Watzke added: “In the task force, we thought long and hard about who that could be, who could be a good match for Flick on a personal and professional level. During the process, everyone noticed: there is someone in the room who covers all the requirements.”
Watzke, who is also managing director of the Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, also said about the cooperation between Völlers and Flick: “It is important that a coach has a counterpart who is not part of his team. A confidant with whom you exchange ideas, with whom you try to optimize things, and from whom you know that topics are not made public.”
“We mustn’t make us too small” – Völler and Watzke call for change
Rudi Völler and Hans-Joachim Watzke agree: Despite all the problems, German football should be more self-confident in the future – with both at the top? Völler should probably inherit Oliver Bierhoff from the DFB. The 1990 world champion is considered the favorite for the post.
Meanwhile, Watzke wants international matches to start earlier again. “Personally, it’s important to me that international matches kick off at 8.15 p.m. instead of 8.45 p.m. if the legal framework allows it,” he says.
However, it is clear to him that there are contractual requirements. “If you don’t comply, you have to accept financial losses. But for kids, the late kick-off time is a problem. And we especially want to bind the youth to the national team. We have to find a solution in the medium term,” said Watzke.
After the disappointing performance of the national team at the World Cup in Qatar, Watzke believes it is necessary to strengthen the fans’ identification with the DFB selection. “We have to allow more closeness around the national team. We need to become more popular, there needs to be more public training sessions,” he said.
