The Rainer Koch system in the German Football Association has been deselected. The long-standing vice president, master of the amateurs and – above all – of the statutes of the DFB, has thrown himself out with his last move. Confident that he would wear down his internal association critics in the tried and tested way even before a fight vote, Koch probably only got involved in a duel with a secret vote; his Bavarian state association had even nominated the opposing candidate Silke Sinning in a patronizing manner. And then Sinning, a veritable career changer in the DFB, showed that nobody in this shop can intimidate her.
She marched into the Bütt, and she said it to the delegates’ faces: that it was up to all of them to ensure that the situation in the chaos association was clear. In an affair that 95 percent of football bases now disapprove of, in which the public prosecutor’s office is a permanent guest – and Rainer Koch, clearly recognizable, is at the center of the earthquake.
No more excuses, was her message. cooking or sinning. Lo and behold, the largely unknown professor of exercise science landed a landslide victory, by a vote of 163 to 68. This shows two things: It is high time to confront the comrade association with women. This gang of men even managed to prevent that from happening during the election campaign; the women’s initiative around Katja Kraus and Co. finally gave up annoyed.
Secondly, this landslide shows how great the rejection of Koch in the DFB actually was and how enormous the pressure of the omnipresent power puller on associations, officials and full-time employees must have been. Now everything could unleash itself in an enormous purification process, which the unexpected possibility of a secret vote had opened up: everyone suddenly dared to finally express what they had otherwise only whispered to each other behind closed doors.
All files, every internal payment transaction from the past few years should be on the table
The DFB is now in a vacuum, but in this case that’s a good thing. For months, Koch and Co. had put everything right, people they trusted were allowed to slide into old and often new offices like a knife through butter. Now the train that Koch put on the rails is leaving without the conductor. This is a culture break in the DFB. It remains to be seen whether it will also be a new beginning, which the association of millions has always written on its banner. But Koch is gone and the opportunity is there.
The new DFB Vice President: Silke Sinning.
(Photo: Simon Hofmann/Getty Images for DFB)
Without the great shadow strategist, the association’s internal team Koch also has to reorient itself. The newly elected first vice-president Ronny Zimmermann, an official with an interesting DFB CV, belongs to this team; but also the new President Bernd Neuendorf. He now has to show from the start that he can really lead the association into the future; just as he had explained to Congress when hardly anyone expected Koch’s departure.
So there is a lot of work ahead of Neuendorf. But the top priority is clear. Because not only the knockout blow for Koch, but also the announced withdrawal of treasurer Stephan Osnabrügge (against whom investigations are still ongoing) is a clear statement from inside the association: Clean up! All files, every internal payment transaction from the past few years should be on the table. The focus is on the new treasurer Stephan Grunwald.
The start of the new DFB also includes, last but not least, a precise assessment of those full-time employees who, despite well-endowed offices with high responsibilities, have never been conspicuous, let alone critical. Iron loyalty should not exceed a certain level, especially in the general secretariat and legal department. Otherwise loyalty becomes a burden. In delicate cases even overnight.