National team
Neuendorf: Sporting failure financially serious
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf also keeps an eye on the finances of the association. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
The sporting failure is expensive for the German Football Association. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf announces austerity measures. The easiest thing would be if titles were won again.
According to association president Bernd Neuendorf, the German Football Association urgently needs financial success again for the men’s national team.
“The expenses regularly exceed the income also due to the sporting failures,” said the 61-year-old on the ZDF “Sportstudio”. Neuendorf confirmed that “all areas” in the association were currently being examined for potential savings.
“It is also a fact that there will be projects that we will have to cancel, there will be cuts,” said the DFB President, who has been in office for almost a year. “We are no longer the ones who can reach out of the cornucopia without end.” The supposed image of the DFB as a “super-rich association where everything goes, where money doesn’t matter” is not correct.
DFB Academy costs
In the current financial report, the DFB recorded a minus of 33.5 million euros due to necessary tax provisions. A high cost factor is the new DFB academy in Frankfurt/Main. World champion Argentina had received bonuses of around 40 million euros for the title at the final round in Qatar at the end of 2022 – the DFB, which was eliminated in the group phase in Russia as in 2018, received almost ten million euros.
“We clearly need countermeasures,” said Neuendorf, emphasizing the importance of successes in international tournaments, especially in men’s football, where more money is paid out than in women’s football. The “focus” must be that “we win back sporting success,” said Neuendorf. The DFB announced at the end of January that packages of measures for a holistic consolidation concept should be drawn up in the individual departments by June 30, 2023.