press reviews
“Stand exclusively for football of profit maximization”: Criticism of the DFB expert council with Rummenigge, Mintzlaff and Co.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf (large) has his hopes in Oliver Mintzlaff, Oliver Kahn, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Rudi Völler and Matthias Sammer (small, from left to right) at the new start for the national team
© Andre Pain / AFP
With well-known names on his expert advice, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf wants to lead the national team out of the crisis and into a new summer fairy tale at the 2024 home European Championship. The selection of the staff triggers criticism in the comments of the German media.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf is fighting on three fronts: he has to get the national team back on track after the messed up World Cup, he has to repair the relationship between fans and team and find a successor for Oliver Bierhoff as managing director of the national team – and all this with the home team -EM 2024 in mind, which should become a new summer fairy tale if possible.
Neuendorf is hoping for help with the big tasks from a newly assembled council of experts. Its members: ex-Bayern Munich boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, 67, FC Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn, 53, BVB advisor Matthias Sammer, 55, Leverkusen inventory Rudi Völler, 62, and Red Bull managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, 47 (der star reported).
The criticism of the staff followed immediately. “Now you have the people who have always been in football, who have steered things in recent years. Diversity is completely put aside,” complained, for example, national soccer goalkeeper Almuth Schult in the ARD. Of the star commented: “With their appointment, Neuendorf failed to send a signal for a real new beginning in terms of personnel.” The DFB is once again threatening to stew in its own juice and rule out innovations.
Press comments on the DFB expert council
In the comment columns of other media, too, the response to the DFB expert council is, with a few exceptions, negative. The press review on the topic:
“foosball”(Nuremberg): “The spontaneous criticism of the compilation is based, among other things, on the statement that the group is ‘too old’ or ‘too male’. That is of course nonsense! After all, this is not about representation, but about advice. And It is therefore not about diversity. The fact that Neuendorf aims solely at the competence of those involved is rather a basic requirement for success. However, it is questionable what level of energy doers like Mintzlaff or Kahn can actually put into the DFB advisory service in addition to the extremely intensive full-time -Jobs that they do full-time. It would be theoretically possible for conflicts of interest to arise from this, but in practice it is unlikely. A successful national team can be assumed to be a common concern of the advisors and the clubs behind them.”
Venues
Uefa has specified Berlin as the final venue for the EM 2024 – games will also be played in these stadiums
“Mirror online”(Hamburg): “Fresh, completely new ideas, impetus from outside – it would be a miracle if that came from this body. All of them are competent in club football, that’s undisputed. They manage successful clubs, or have done so, but they have always lived according to the principle: if things don’t go well in sporting terms, then a lot of money is spent and people buy in. They exclusively stand for a football that puts profit maximization in the foreground and not the sustainable promotion of young talent. “
“sports 1”(Munich): “A courageous choice does indeed look different! The diversity is missing when you look at five people who work or were active at FC Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund. Where are the uncomfortable spirits, Who dig a little deeper, ask other questions? Renewal? Please not too much of it. A fresh breeze with fresh faces did the DFB a lot almost two decades ago.”
“Southgerman newspaper”(Munich): “The fact that Kahn, the active CEO of FC Bayern, and Mintzlaff, the new strongman of the Red Bull empire, are now advising the DFB raised a few legitimate questions in Frankfurt on Tuesday, about possible conflicts of interest, for example, the There shouldn’t be any more in the new DFB. But Bernd Neuendorf countered that with an assessment of the record international and Qatar ambassador Lothar Matthäus. He thinks the new DFB group is impressive: ‘You can’t do much more!’ Well then.”
“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “The external DFB advisory group, which seems to have been beamed into the DFB campus of the 21st century in its homogeneity largely from the 1980s, could still be more useful than is now being scoffed at in social networks. The group of five unites , albeit in far from diverse ways, the power of the main German clubs.”
“Daily Mirror”(Berlin): “The group could hardly have looked much more homogeneous: no women, no migration background, an average age of 57. So this is how the new start of the national team should look like? There would have been fresher candidates whose perspective could have been enriching ( …) So the feeling remains that the DFB is missing a great opportunity.”
“Berlin newspaper”:“In any case, Neuendorf, in cooperation with league boss Hans-Joachim Watzke, did not pursue a strategy of pandering or compensating for the selection of the group, which is far more prominent in its public impact. Otherwise, they would have included at least one woman of a younger age in the advisory group in order to at least give the appearance of Maintaining diversity and giving the team of experts a touch of modernity.And they would have done without Oliver Mintzlaff.Because the former track and field athlete, who recently rose from RB Leipzig to the top of the Red Bull group, is by no means a figure with which the German football will bring us closer to the emotional world of the grassroots.”