DFB decision: Koch will run for Uefa and Fifa committees

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The decision was only a matter of form: DFB Vice President Rainer Koch will run for seats on the Executive Committee of Uefa and in the Council of the World Federation Fifa. This was announced by the German Football Association on Friday after a presidium meeting in Frankfurt.

The decision had already indicated in September, when Koch had confirmed the SPIEGEL that he wanted to give up his job as a judge at the Higher Regional Court Munich and let himself be elected to the Uefa Executive Committee. This is made possible by the renunciation of the new DFB President Fritz Keller, who has no ambitions in this regard.

"I see my tasks in the national area," said the Freiburger. The chances of Keller's deputy chef on the vacant post in the Executive Committee of the European Football Union are good: From the point of view of Uefa boss Aleksander Ceferin Germany should be represented there as European champions in 2024.

Koch will stand for election at the Uefa Congress in Amsterdam on March 3, 2020, and the term of office would be one year. The deadline for the three-year term as European representative in the Fifa Council ends on 3 December. Since the former DFB President Reinhard Grindel has left the committees of Uefa and Fifa after his resignation, the DFB is no longer represented there.

Criticism of chef

"Thanks to his many years of experience and his large network, Rainer Koch is the ideal candidate to represent the interests of German football in international committees," said Keller in a DFB statement.

Recently, however, there had been criticism of Koch because he should have threatened officials, so they choose one of his confidants in a committee. He was then reported to the Ethics Committee of the DFB. Regional and state associations should Koch intimidated with a possible "redistribution of funds". Koch rejected the allegations as "incorrectly reproduced".