The fight for the repositioning in the German Football Association is in full swing. Above all, the current interim presidents Rainer Koch, 62, and Peter Peters, 59, are struggling to settle things in their minds before the early election of the Bundestag in March. Otherwise, the end of their career as a functionary threatens – and also their well-paid executive board positions in Uefa and Fifa.
Efforts have been going on for weeks to build Bernd Neuendorf, 61, who was only at the helm of the Middle Rhine Association in 2019, as the new DFB President. At the same time, it is important to consider whether the amateur faction, which is predominantly controlled by Koch, could not dare to take cover too early. Changes to the statutes are pending, the ambitions of Peters, who is considered as a possible candidate for the professional camp, cannot yet be clearly classified. In addition, the women’s initiative “Football can do more” is working to put a double top in the race.
The statics of the presidential freestyle can still change a lot until March. Also because there are still many torpedoes slumbering in the shallows of the DFB, not least on financial issues. Such an explosive device, which leads back to the beginning of the association’s internal chaos months, is now coming back into focus: the extremely lavishly endowed contract between the old DFB top management and communications consultant and long-time chef friend Kurt Diekmann, 74, and the one that has not yet been clarified Background of this explosive agreement.
It was an unusual step that internal and external auditors had to take action
It’s even a double torpedo. Because according to SZ research, proceedings in the Diekmann case are pending with the association’s ethics committee. And in line with this, the final test report on the 372,000 euro contract was recently available – according to SZ information, with a result that could further weaken the position of the DFB bosses.
At the beginning of the year, the Diekmann issue was the trigger for the bitter, permanently headline-grabbing rift between then President Fritz Keller, who resigned in May, and his opponents: General Secretary Friedrich Curtius (also no longer in office), Treasurer Stephan Osnabrügge (joins the DFB Bundestag no longer in March) and just the puller Koch. The circumstances of the Diekmann contract were clearly so dubious that the unusual step was taken to use internal auditors and external auditors to clarify the situation. In an interim report in the spring, both investigative bodies had devastating criticism, a warning: They stated that the documents presented to them did not reveal for what understandable reasons and for what specific services Diekmann received so much money from the DFB. They even posted a voluntary report by the DFB superiors in the room. Treasurer Osnabrugge was outraged and pressed for clarifications, a wild dispute ensued.
According to SZ information, the final report that has now been drawn up should be formulated less sharply in some places – but there should hardly be any substantial deviations from the first report. According to insider circles, the findings were softened in passages in the choice of words, but in essential parts of the content, also with regard to the unclear performance records, still congruent with the explosive interim report.
It would be important for the association to publish the report
When asked by SZ, the DFB declares that the report had been submitted to the compliance officer for a second review. The latter had already confirmed that the report “did not result in any need for action for the DFB. The report no longer contains the passages that were originally objected to. The contractual relationship with Diekmann Kommunikation GmbH has been properly processed.” When asked on Friday whether the examiners’ warned points about the performance records have been clarified, and whether they would have testified to this, the DFB remained silent.
Especially after the disastrous interim report in May, it would be of the greatest importance for the non-profit association, which represents 7.1 million members, to give the all-clear with a correspondingly presentable test report. So the question now is how the association deals with the report. The DFB probably does not want to hand over the investigation to the authorities, who, according to SZ information, have also become suspicious of this issue. According to reports, the paper was not distributed in the Presidium, but only told the members that they could see it at the Frankfurt DFB headquarters. The association says that the handling was “agreed” in the presidium. This is a memorable process, known from an investigation by another expensive service provider: the Esecon report on irregularities relating to the 2006 World Cup. Despite all the transparency mantras, this is not published either.
Officially, Diekmann worked for the association between April 2019 and October 2020, even if, strangely enough, the contract was not sealed until October 2019. Koch’s troika of officials had been preparing the paper for a long time, but it was not signed until two weeks after Keller was elected president. According to the DFB, Diekmann’s task was primarily to support the internal and multi-million dollar research by Esecon into allegations in the collaboration with the long-term marketer Infront; In addition, the work in the affair of the 2006 soccer World Cup – which continued well after Diekmann’s contract ended, namely until 2021.
Diekmann has played a role in the sporting political environment for a long time
The tactics of the DFB around Diekmann’s contract was often irritating. It was all the more piquant that, according to the files, the communications consultant had long played a role in the sports-political environment of the association: in 2012, he drummed up high association officials with references to extremely strange processes in world football and their spill-over effects on German sport. Koch had also rushed to the meeting in Hanover at the time – but the talk was then supposedly about something completely different, the DFB said later. The consultant also appeared in autumn 2015, in the wake of the “summer fairy tale” scandal surrounding questionable millions in payments in the context of the 2006 World Cup. For example, it should be done before the first one mirrors– Revelation to the Swiss compliance expert Mark Pieth whispered about an impending “bomb”.
Later, and for a few weeks, he even worked in parallel with his work for the DFB mirrors together with Diekmann. In October 2018 he announced the beginning of the “P dismantling” to journalists in Hamburg: the dismantling of the president? In March 2019, a few days before he started working for the DFB, Diekmann boasted in an email that he had assisted in the impending overthrow of the then DFB President Reinhard Grindel. “Chapeau! With this large-caliber volley (we have) hit the Grinch’s ammunition chamber,” he wrote mirrors-Editors.
The man who chases the president receives a cooperation right after his overthrow? At least that sounds so adventurous that it would have to deal with your own ethics committee. It does. At least formally.
The completely renewed ethics committee under the controversial personnel consultant Irina Kummert has only been in office for a short time. She has played a strange role herself in the DFB power struggle since her sudden reshuffle. The previous ethics committee had been blown up by the DFB grandees with dubious maneuvers at the beginning of June – just at a time when two reports about Vice Koch had been received. One came from the women’s initiative “Football can do more”; it was about undue pressure that Koch had exerted on referee Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb. But the second is much more spicy in terms of content: It comes from ex-President Grindel.
His submission also dealt with Diekmann’s role around his fall and the news trader’s connections to old DFB drivers like Koch. And also about another explosive process related to the World Cup affair. According to this, Koch had already told him before the publication of the mirrors reported on his knowledge of research in autumn 2015. Grindel had already explained this shortly before in the ZDF sports studio – Koch then countered that “Reinhard Grindel’s statements are not true”. He always denied all allegations. The reporting of the mirrors, which, according to Grindel, Koch might have known in advance, Grindel’s predecessor Wolfgang Niersbach finally cost the job in 2015.
Ex-President Grindel made an explosive submission
The key question now is how the new ethicists deal with all of these issues. According to SZ information, the old ethics committee started a procedure early in the year in which it was about the “commissioning of Diekmann”, that is to say about the topics that also occupied the auditors. Their final report should of course be awaited. In August, Grindel was finally heard. However, according to SZ information, his statements about alleged sports-political activities of the discrete DFB advisor should not be treated separately, but as part of the pending Diekmann proceedings. The two auditors are also said to have sent their final report to the new ethicists, as agreed months ago.
Officially, ethics chief Kummert only announces the status of the proceedings: “The ethics committee does not, in principle, make a statement to the press as to whether and, if so, which submissions it is dealing with or not dealing with for what reasons.”
A tricky process, explosive questions, a bundle of clear indications and clues: will the DFB reveal one of its darkest secrets after all? So far, the non-profit association has not allowed the public to participate in the alleged dissolution – although the final report is supposed to be so relaxing.
Judging by the previous work records of the redesigned ethicist combo, it should come as no surprise if the matter petered out silently. So far the process has been somewhat comical. As the SZ found out, Grindel had to look for the publications with which he supported his statements because they could not be found by the extensive DFB press office – including a spectacular half-hour appearance by Koch in the ZDF sports studio. Grindel complied with the request and named the places where it was found: using the DFB’s own press review.