Football with Gysi, Kühnert, Bär
DFB buries its panel discussions at the home European Championship
As of: 6:45 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Gregor Gysi was one of the politicians who were supposed to take part in the “Football Time Tour”.
Source: dpa/Serhat Kocak
The German Football Association wanted to organize five panel discussions throughout the republic around its home European Championship. There were confirmations from celebrities from politics and entertainment. After internal criticism, the project has now been scrapped.
New construction site for DFB President Bernd Neuendorf. The planned “Football Time Tour”, which was intended to create interest nationwide for the home European Championships (June 14th to July 14th) from April, was buried by the responsible DFB managing director Andreas Rettig. The 21 regional association presidents sharply criticized the project at their meeting with Neuendorf last Monday.
The “Football Time Tour” had previously been presented to them for the first time by one of Rettig’s employees, who was not present himself: a total of five panel discussions were planned in front of 150 guests, one each in the five regional associations North, Northeast, West, Southwest and South.
Participants alongside Rettig or sports director Rudi Völler: prominent politicians such as Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD), SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert (34) and Bundestag members Gregor Gysi (Die Linke) and Dorothee Bär (CDU/CSU). Plus celebrities from business, culture and media such as TV presenter Micky Beisenherz. The chances of the home European Championship should be discussed.
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The selected cities were presented on a map of Germany. Rettig’s employee explained that they deliberately didn’t go to the ten European Championship venues because there was euphoria about the European Championship here anyway. Gelsenkirchen was supposed to start in April. However, the Ruhr metropolis is hosting three preliminary round games and one round of 16. Not the only moment that caused the sovereigns to shake their heads and three critical comments.
Lack of understanding from Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein
Ralph-Uwe Schaffert (67), President in Lower Saxony, was extremely irritated by the fact that the project was put on track without first involving the regional associations and the DFB Executive Board, of which he is a member as North President. An accusation not only to the responsible DFB GmbH and Co. KG, but also to Neuendorf and General Secretary Heike Ullrich.
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Like Schaffert, President Uwe Döring (64) from Schleswig-Holstein reacted with incomprehension to the planned venue in the north: Wolfsburg or Braunschweig. Both are in Lower Saxony, but the northern association also includes Bremen, Hamburg and its SHFV. In addition, only ten percent of the 150 tickets for each panel discussion should go to the state associations that belong to the regional association. In the north that would have only been four cards per association. Döring would have done without.
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Bayern President Christoph Kern (40) also found clear words. For him, the panel discussions would have been unsuitable for achieving the goals “national team and DFB enter into dialogue” and “fan proximity” presented on slides. Kern said he couldn’t expect any of his amateurs to travel four and a half hours from Upper Palatinate to Freiburg for a one and a half hour discussion with Gysi or Kühnert. What could they possibly say about football?
Bavaria feels let down
Bavaria is one of the regional associations in which there is already great discontent because they feel abandoned in their efforts to capitalize on the euphoria of the home European Championship in the short and long term through campaigns suitable for the masses. The DFB has just started its nationwide children’s football tour with new forms of play. There is also the “DFB Points Game” campaign, which is aimed at more than 24,000 amateur clubs. But for some regional associations this comes far too late and is not sufficient. That’s why our own sustainable programs are implemented.
They have been running in Bavaria for a year now: the 1,800 volunteers (out of 12,000 applicants) who are deployed around the games in Munich are being offered training to become trainers or referees. There is also a big girls’ football campaign during the European Championships.
The text was written for the Sports Competence Center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and first published in SPORT BILD.
