Fritz Keller, here in 2019, resigned on May 12, 2021 from the presidency of the German Football Association. – Martin Meissner / AP / SIPA
The president of the German Football Association (DFB) steps out of the field. Fritz Keller, under pressure after comparing one of his opponents to a Nazi judge, announced his resignation on Tuesday. He will therefore not complete the negotiations on the recruitment of Hansi Flick as coach after the Euro.
64-year-old Fritz Keller, 64, found himself under fire from critics after comparing one of his deputies at the end of April to an infamous judge of the Nazi regime, Roland Freisler, who had sent dozens of opponents of death and participated in the Wannsee conference which had decided on the holocaust. In a press release published Monday evening, the Federation announces that it will make its mandate available next Monday after his appearance before an internal court of the DFB, to answer for his verbal slippage.
Apologies and resignation
Although he apologized and agreed to answer for his words, Fritz Keller was therefore pushed to resign by several presidents of regional federations, who asked him on Sunday to leave his post. President of the Friborg club, he was unanimously elected in August 2019 with the mission of restoring calm within the powerful DFB, torn for years by conflicts of interest and suspicions of corruption.
DFB manager Oliver Bierhoff is currently in the process of signing Bayern coach Hansi Flick to succeed Joachim Löw as national manager after the Euro this summer. Beyond this crucial sporting deadline, the Federation must also tackle the preparations for Euro-2024, which has been assigned to Germany.