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The ethics committee of the German Football Association was founded in 2016. The association describes its tasks as follows: "It oversees the new code of ethics of the DFB, in which the DFB commits itself to quality, objectivity, honesty, fairness and integrity and is obligatory for all organs, employees, honorary officials and all Companies in which the DFB holds the majority of shares or voting rights. "
One would have to believe that this commission is quite busy. After all, a lot has happened in football since 2016: fans and clubs argue sometimes bitterly about who may have the power in the club, such as at Hannover 96th The summer fairy tale affair of the DFB is worked up at best in the approach, the events around Mesut Özil brought the DFB under suspicion of racism, the President Reinhard Grindel had to go to corruption allegations, there are right-wing extremist activities in fan camps of clubs like the Chemnitzer FC. The ethics committee should have been able to meet around the clock.
But what did you hear from the panel so far? As good as nothing. When Klaus Kinkel, the founding chairman of the commission, drew an interim balance at the end of 2017, the result was as follows: The dispute at Hannover 96 about the takeover wishes of club boss Martin Kind had not been discussed because nobody had approached the commission. In the Sommermärchen affair, it's better to wait and see how things develop. Also in Özil was nothing to hear from the ethics committee. In the case of Grindel, commission chairman Nicolas Schneider said that no charges would be taken: Grindel's resignation was sanction enough.
Yes, no, silted up
Thus, the case of the racist remarks by Schalke boss Clemens Tönnies on the day of the craft in Paderborn also a kind litmus test for the ethics commission of the DFB was. How serious is the association, how serious is this body of calling for sanctions if someone violates the principles of the Code, and no matter how prominent?
The answer is with today's arbitration: yes, that was racist, which Tönnies said. No, Tönnies is still not a racist. And if yes and no are next to each other, then you decide for the mild result. It was never about judging whether Clemens Tönnies is a racist or not. That would be a DFB Commission probably not at all. It was about evaluating his clear words from the Paderborn speech and possibly recommending an indictment.
The four-member panel was unable to achieve this. Instead, was postponed two weeks ago on the grounds that you need more background information. Whatever that was. This is not clear from the justification of today's Thursday. She would not have asked for an additional two-week research.
So, like all the cases mentioned above, the case gets silted up. And the Ethics Committee of the German Football Association remains in the end only a case on the desk, with which they should seriously deal. It says: Why do we still need such a commission?