Junge Welt: “Everything Will Be Fine” – Dec 8, 2025

Every athlete, whether they keep fit as a hobby in their free time or professionally strive for international precious metals, should find paradisiacal conditions in this country in ten years. Within a “sports decade”, the Federal Republic is expected to become one of the five top sports nations in the world by 2035. Children and young people should then get an average of at least 90 “minutes of exercise” every day, and adults should get 150 minutes per week. Sports fields and halls, which are currently in need of serial renovation (total volume more than 30 billion euros), should be accessible to people everywhere within a maximum of a quarter of an hour to get fit. Supervised by capable staff, of course. The number of licensed, well-trained instructors and trainers is to be increased threefold from the current approximately 500,000 by 2035 – at the same time, the number of memberships of the clubs organized in the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) is to grow from currently around 29.3 million to 35 million.

What a project that the DOSB general meeting started on Saturday in Frankfurt am Main! The promise is that organized sport wants to lobby politicians for the project. Such a national feat of strength can only be achieved shoulder to shoulder. With its “target structure,” the umbrella organization is “affirming its social legitimacy as the central voice of sport in Germany,” said President Thomas Weikert in front of 190 delegates. »Ambitious? Yes. Feasible? Yes. At least when we pull together. By combining ambition, measurability and shared responsibility, the foundation is laid to make sport even more effective, relevant and sustainable by 2035.«

In all of this, no thought was given to the legal right to full-day care for primary school-aged children, which will gradually come into force next year. With good, professional integration, this opens up enormous opportunities for sports clubs. At the same time, given the fatal failings in school sports, they could very quickly find themselves in the role of “cleaner”. The futuristic “target structure” should be formulated in detail by the next general meeting, at which new elections will also be held at the end of 2026. From 2027 it will have to pass the practical test.

Then the association will not necessarily have a new president – Weikard has not yet decided on his candidacy – but at least not one that is purely honorary in the classic sense. From 2027, the head of the DOSB will be entitled to a monthly allowance of 2,000 euros for the first time, and the vice presidents will receive 1,000 euros per month. Over 90 percent of the delegates agreed to this innovation. The focus of the meeting was the topic of a German application for the Olympic Games in 2036, 2040 or 2044. The further timetable was approved with 99.79 percent of the votes. The decisive election will take place on September 26, 2026 at an extraordinary general meeting in Baden-Baden. Until then, there is still a delicate question that needs to be clarified. Will only the leading associations of Olympic sports be allowed to vote in Baden-Baden? Or all of the 103 member organizations of the DOSB, i.e. all 70 specialist associations for Olympic and non-Olympic sports, the 27 associations with special tasks and the 16 state sports associations? Probably a question for lawyers.

The fact is that the four applicants Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr have to submit their finished concepts to the DOSB by June 4, 2026. These are then checked according to five categories. Before that, there will be two referendums on April 19th in the Rhine-Ruhr region and on May 31st in Hamburg. Munich has already overcome this hurdle; at the end of October, two thirds of those surveyed in the Bavarian metropolis voted “for the Olympics”. The Berlin constitution does not provide for such a vote, but the “Nolympia” alliance is aiming for a referendum – against the application.

While the home games are a long way off, there is already good news for the German Olympians. In the future, taxes will no longer be levied on bonuses for summer and winter games (such as the 20,000 euros for an Olympic gold medal). This is what it says in the tax amendment law that passed the Bundestag in the middle of last week. The amendment also stipulates that events organized by sports clubs receive tax-privileged treatment if their income, including sales tax, does not exceed 50,000 euros per year. Previously the limit was 45,000 euros. Johannes Herber, managing director of “Athletes Germany” with currently around 850 members from over 60 sports, is delighted: “The tax exemption for medal bonuses is the starting signal for the federal government’s announced athletes offensive.”