Christian Seifert was managing director of the German Football League for almost 17 years, and in this role one of the most powerful figures in the industry. At the end of the year he resigns, and in view of the chaotic conditions in the German Football Association, the departing Seifert now presented a hearty account. Some DFB people, he said in a media round, had “lied straight to his face several times”. The relationship between the association and the DFL is “at an absolute low” – which at least means that it can only get better. He wished the DFB that “there will be a bit of peace and quiet”.
Seifert himself knows that the latter is wishful thinking. The fight for the presidency is coming to a head, the maneuvers of the warring parties are getting more and more weird. This is shown by the castling of the old system responsible for the enormous imbalance – which the women’s initiative “Football can do more” now wants to dismantle. The latter wants to fundamentally reform football; among other things with a new dual leadership made up of men and women. “100 percent of those interested in football want change. 17 men are against it,” says SZ manager Katja Kraus, who heads the initiative. 17 men: That is what the majority of the regional association bosses mean, who are still docile to Rainer Koch, the omnipresent mastermind and permanent interim boss.
On March 11, the DFB Bundestag is to elect Fritz Keller’s successor. So far, two applicants are available. The candidate of Koch’s amateurs, who cast two-thirds of the votes in the Bundestag, is Bernd Neuendorf, a former SPD politician and head of the Central Rhine association for two years. Opposite him is Peter Peters, previously hapless CFO of FC Schalke 04 and outgoing supervisory board chairman of the DFL. Neither of the two stands for a new beginning in the crisis association. Peters has been on the top boards for a long time, but at least shows a clear edge: He would not make a fresh start as long as Koch has influence on the executive suite. In fact, all four DFB presidents who were last expelled from office pass shocking judgments about their long-time Vice President Koch. Incidentally, he was allowed to inherit the last three – Wolfgang Niersbach, Reinhard Grindel, Fritz Keller – on an interim basis.
“We have some interesting constellations,” says Katja Kraus – it is only a problem with the process
The Neuendorf candidate looks like an ideal cast for the old model of rule. A complete novice in the DFB swamp, but who is convinced that he can get things under control. The Koch system supports him. Internally, Neuendorf already gave the impression that he is planning to hold a presidential function with the Bavarian privy councilor – as the German representative in the European association Uefa. So wherever Koch is also highly controversial.
In view of this situation, approaches such as the dual leadership propagated by the women’s initiative seem like a real new beginning. Also, the group has by no means given up on its goal just because it was recently in one time-Interview Kraus and fellow campaigner Almuth Schult had explainedthat, given the strange course of the presidential election, they do not want to send anyone into the race for the time being. Because: There is time until February for this, the election is on March 11th. “We have some interesting constellations,” Katja Kraus told the SZ on Friday. The problem is “only the question of the procedure”.
In fact, the previous process left no room for alternatives. But in times of crisis, Kraus thinks, a real fresh start is needed. And that “can best be achieved in a democratic process”, many people should participate. That describes the opposite of the classic DFB strategy: he actually built up his candidate for months in the back room. And externally, the circle around Koch, who has been in charge of DFB law for many years, clings to the statutes. It is then gladly discovered when it is needed.
The association officially represents around seven million football fans. But it has only 27 members, the state and regional associations and the DFL – and only their grandees can make suggestions and choose candidates. Not the base. It is fitting that there is nothing in the statutes about dual leadership. The DFB itself, which has been ruled by a dual leadership made up of Koch and Peters for six months, has shown how quickly that can be changed: in 2004, it appointed Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder and Theo Zwanziger to be dual leaders.
Even with the SPD and the CDU, the base now chooses the top. Why not at the DFB?
Due to the women’s criticism of the murky procedure, it is now whispered in the amateur camp that everything was again a misunderstanding and that no decision was made in favor of Neuendorf. But then alternatives and suggestions could still be examined. Didn’t the CDU elect the new chairman Friedrich Merz just on Friday by means of a member survey? Didn’t the SPD think the same way in 2019? Although the party congress formally elects the chairman, it is bound by the basic survey.
It fits in with the fact that at the membership convention of the 36 DFL clubs from the first and second Bundesliga this week, the expected vote for Peters was canceled. The ex-Schalke is also viewed critically by some in the professional camp; this leaves the option open to other, still conceivable candidates.
The initiative continues to put the good officials under pressure to act. So far, there is only one woman on the 15-person DFB Presidium, Hannelore Ratzeburg, and she is out of the team. The challenger Peters has already brought sports scientist Silke Sinning into his team. And ideas are also circulating in the Koch / Neuendorf circle as to how everything can be shaken in the end.
The Rhineland Football Association, close to Neuendorfs Mittelrhein-Bund, has already suggested Celia Sasic as vice-president that she should take over the newly planned department “Women’s Bundesliga”. From the once so critical, now silent north, Sabine Mammitzsch could be an option. Seifert’s successor at the top of the league, Donata Hopfen, is already moving to the DFB Presidium. And then there is still a general secretary, after Friedrich Curtius’ affair-ridden departure, Heike Ullrich moved up. She is also very close to cooking. But: The audience could easily be told that, simsalabim !, the number of women at the top level has quickly quadrupled.
But it’s about people, which is why the status quo would only be cemented: Here the new DFL boss – there three women who fit on the ticket of the old comrade. No trace of reorganization.