Sports official Sylvia Schenk
Possible application for the Olympic Games: Germany is completely “unregistered”
Sylvia Schenk considers German sports policy to be naïve on the international stage
© Arne Dedert / DPA
Devastating verdict: Germany is lagging behind in terms of sports policy, says former athlete and sports official Sylvia Schenk. The DFB embarrassed the country in Qatar and the DOSB is running a possible Olympic application in a highly amateurish way.
Sylvia Schenk is familiar with sports politics. The former middle-distance runner, who took part in the 1972 Munich Olympics, heads the Sport working group at Transparency International Germany. She has carried out various activities in sport, including being a member of the Human Rights Advisory Board of Fifa, she was involved in Hamburg’s application for the 2024 Summer Olympics, which was ultimately rejected by referendum. And she was at the World Cup in Qatar as a so-called human rights volunteer.
Schenk isn’t one of those people who immediately succumbs to obsessive indignation when they hear the word Gianni Infantino (Fifa boss). In the debate about the human rights situation in Qatar, she advocated taking a more differentiated look at the country, about which many Germans quickly formed a conclusive opinion (and about the soccer World Cup and the DFB team anyway).
Schenk demands a differentiated view
The same applies to the hasty judgments about the much-criticized World Football Association or the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Especially in Germany, many critics made it too easy for themselves. This is how Schenk’s view of the major developments in sports and international sports politics could be summed up.
Now, after the all-German debacle in Qatar, Schenk believes that the next disaster for German sport is looming. The German Olympic Sports Confederation DOSB wants to start a debate about whether Germany should apply for the 2036 or 2040 Olympic Games. Positive signals came quickly from politics after the announcement. Hamburg’s Mayor Peter Tschentscher was impressed by the idea of several cities (such as Berlin and Hamburg) applying together.
Schenk thinks that’s naive. “I would very much like to experience that, but we don’t have all the prerequisites for that at the moment, we have to work a lot first and bring ourselves back up to international standards in terms of sport policy,” she said in an interview with the radio station NDR Info.
In terms of sports policy, Germany has said goodbye to the world stage
Because in terms of sports policy, Germany has long since said goodbye to the world stage, says Schenk. The DOSB, for example, overslept all the developments of the past few years. Today it is no longer usual to simply hand in a glossy application, as Hamburg would have done, but you have to have discussions in advance, make contacts, explore opportunities. The IOC sort out beforehand whether an application is worthwhile.
The favorite political argument that sports facilities and infrastructure are available in Germany to hold such a major event without requiring a great deal of effort does not apply either: “… none of the sports facilities now available in Germany meet today’s Olympic standards, Especially not the Olympic standard for 2040 or 2044. So to say we already have everything is nonsense anyway.”
Schenk also distrusts the true intentions of the DOSB. She suspects that the application only serves to strengthen sports funding in Germany because an application has this effect. “I think that’s the calculation of the German Olympic Sports Confederation at the moment. Otherwise he would first get international knowledge before making big waves nationally”.
Schenk: There is a lack of a sense of reality in German sport
In terms of sports policy, Germany is “completely deregistered”. “There is a lack of a sense of reality in German sport, there is a lack of international flair, there is a lack of political flair, and again, we just saw in Qatar how the DFB made a fool of itself and the whole of Germany. We have to start very small and don’t talk about the Olympics now.” And who should support Germany in the event of an Olympic bid? Schenk asks. “We just alienated Africa and Asia in Qatar, (…), who should actually vote for a German Olympic bid?”
Sources: “NDR Info“, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”