After Bierhoff-Aus
German football is now also looking at these names
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf is now required. photo
© Tom Weller/dpa
German football is struggling with the crisis after the World Cup. The DFB and DFL are discussing the future. It’s also about personal details – one has already been decided.
The sun is shining in Doha. It doesn’t take much to imagine that the top management of the German Football Association and the German Football League would rather deal with the World Cup in Qatar than with the difficult personnel discussions at home in cold Germany.
But the crisis after the end of the World Cup and those within the DFL require people with big names in German football to act quickly. The DFB has already made the first personnel decision. And the DFL is also already discussing successors. An overview.
The director
Oliver Bierhoff (54) was the first to draw conclusions. He is leaving the German Football Association after 18 years, both parties agreed on Monday to terminate the contract, which runs until 2024. “I’m paving the way for new decisions,” Bierhoff said in a statement. The top official thus revised the attitude he expressed immediately after the end of the World Cup on Thursday that he wanted to head for the 2024 European Championships at home as the next big goal. In public perception, Bierhoff’s name seems to be much more associated with failure than that of coach Hansi Flick.
The national coach
Hansi Flick (57) will probably be appointed to DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke this week. Flick had announced that he would work through the failure of the World Cup “very, very quickly” and that he was “always someone who is very critical”. The demands for a replacement of the former Bayern title collector are limited. With the European Championship at home in a year and a half, Flick seems to be confident of a new start despite the Qatar backpack. And if not, he would go down in DFB history with a sad record: With 19 international matches, he has so far experienced the fewest games of any national coach. Erich Ribbeck had to resign after 24, Jürgen Klinsmann stood at 34 when he chose to retire. The record holder is Flick’s predecessor Joachim Löw at 198.
The president
Bernd Neuendorf (61) has only been in office since March. Linked to the election of the former NRW State Secretary was the hope of calmer times at the top of the association after years of internal quarrels. Neuendorf did that. The World Cup in Qatar was the first major test. The “One Love” debate, which is said to have affected the team more than admitted, the miserable end in the preliminary round – Neuendorf must now show that he can really be a moderator and innovator. With uncomfortable decisions?
The chairman of the board
Hans-Joachim Watzke (63) has become increasingly important in recent days. The CEO of Borussia Dortmund has been the head of the DFL supervisory board for a year and, according to the statutes, is the first vice-president of the DFB. And since the departure of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge as Bayern boss, the long-term Borussia has probably the most important vote in the Bundesliga. On Friday, Neuendorf announced that Watzke would be closely involved in the analysis of the failure of the World Cup. On Sunday, the “kicker” wrote that DFL managing director Donata Hopfen was on the brink of extinction because the supervisory board around Watzke no longer trusted her. Emerging stronger from the German football crisis is difficult for everyone involved. Watze has at least become more present.
The manager
At the beginning of the year, Donata Hopfen (46) took on the rather thankless task of succeeding Christian Seifert at the top of the DFL. Under Seifert, the Bundesliga association was enormously successful in media marketing for years, and through the Corona crisis, Seifert navigated impressively confidently. Hops took over in difficult times – and obviously viewed critically in the industry.
According to “Kicker”, hops did not convince their critics with their handling of the 50+1 rule, digitization and foreign rights marketing. It was noticeable right from the start that the balance of power shifted: Watzke, as the head of the supervisory board, was much more in the spotlight, which would have been unthinkable with Seifert and Watzke’s predecessor Peter Peters. According to information from the German Press Agency, the league’s supervisory board is already advising on an interim solution after the replacement of hops. A double lead with Axel Hellmann from Eintracht Frankfurt and Oliver Leki from SC Freiburg is under discussion.