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DFB boss Fritz Keller is no longer laughing
Photo: Martin Hoffmann Berliner Str. 31 / imago images / Martin Hoffmann
At Bayer Leverkusen there was once the not very serious theory that something must be in the walls of the club.
A material that contributes to the fact that the team always misses its big goal with an uncanny reliability when it matters, regardless of who is in charge of the sport.
If such a thing really existed, then the German Football Association on the Otto-Fleck-Schneise in Frankfurt am Main would have had to knock the plaster off all the walls long ago.
But there are also rational explanations why this association staggers over and over again from one crisis to the next.
At the moment it's particularly dramatic again.
The still incumbent President Fritz Keller has once again weighed heavily on his already difficult position with an unacceptable Nazi comparison. Bringing his vice, Rainer Koch, who works as a judge and who is politically at home in the SPD, in connection with the Nazi blood judge Roland Freisler, is an impossibility, absolutely unworthy of a president.
Keller justified this statement with the heated argument in the DFB Presidium, but such a choice of words must not be undermined by the president of an association that is committed to integration, international understanding and also the processing of its own Nazi legacy - regardless of the situation .
Keller likes to present himself as the head of the association to whom sustainability, sensitivity, the fight against racism and fairness are important.
Such an insult is beyond fairness.
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Fritz Keller and Rainer Koch, they don't like each other
Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa
It has now become clear to Keller that he also scored an own goal in the internal scramble for power and influence in the association.
The opposition in the DFB, embodied by General Secretary Friedrich Curtius, Treasurer Stephan Osnabrügge and the eternal DFB Vice-President Koch gladly took this up as an assist.
In an official statement on Tuesday, Curtius and Osnabrugge made public their disapproval of Keller's statement in an indignant gesture.
Just as you would like.
There is only talk of the power struggle
For months, the DFB has only spoken and written in connection with the word power struggle, only the announced resignation of national coach Joachim Löw has produced other headlines for a few days in between.
Keller and Curtius have been blocking each other for months, Bayern godfather Uli Hoeneß used one of his RTL appearances as a TV expert a few weeks ago to discredit the entire DFB top as completely incapable in front of a television audience of millions.
There was not even a noticeable contradiction from the DFB.
Almost no one speaks of the lofty plans associated with the construction of the DFB Academy.
The future of the association depends on it.
Fritz Keller should not only accompany this new beginning, he should also embody it.
Finally not one from the belly of the association, but a man from the outside.
One who could anchor topics such as climate change, the advancement of women and young talent in the DFB, was the hope when the winemaker and President of SC Freiburg took office in 2019.
Two years later, there was little left of the expectations. Keller lost almost all of his credit through erratic appearances in public and through his at least unhappy communication in the association.
Coming up with a Nazi comparison in such a situation is not only extremely unprofessional, it also speaks for how little Keller has himself under control in such situations.
What comes after Keller?
A resignation of the president, which Keller himself is currently ruling out, would save face, but not only the »Süddeutsche Zeitung« warned in panic about what would come next.
Then Curtius and Koch could feel like the real winners in the association, a general secretary who made headlines by having his Wikipedia entry pimped up for a lot of money and the vice cook, who sees the president come and go and himself always in office remains.
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General Secretary Friedrich Curtius
Photo: Jan Huebner / Pool / Simon Hoffmann / imago images / Jan Huebner
Koch survived all of them in office, the association heads, however different they appeared.
Keller, who wanted to act as a gentle reformer.
His predecessor Reinhard Grindel, who stumbled upon the watch affair and had already purposefully headed for fat bowls.
Wolfgang Niersbach, jovial, eloquent on the outside, with elbows on the inside, but none of that helped him when he lost track of the 2006 World Cup affair about the award of the tournament.
And before that there was Theo Zwanziger, who also made an outstanding contribution to the integration and support of women's football, but who failed in the referee affair around Manfred Amerell because of his ego, and who now appears almost only in public when it comes to walking around with case files.
Unculture has established itself
They all had and still have their qualities, they all agree that they never got this association under control.
The DFB headquarters, with its more than 200 employees, is seen by many as ungovernable, over the decades a culture, or rather non-culture, has established itself in the company in which career has been confused with careerism, in which people work with piercing and hard bandages.
Former DFB employees can tell stories for hours about intrigues and ropes and do this again and again with passion to the media.
In the past, the respective tours have done little to change that.
To the detriment and annoyance of the honorable employees who were and are always and everywhere in the association.
The DFB is currently preparing to move, the headquarters will move to the site of the former horse racing track in Frankfurt-Niederrad in the future. Of course, this did not go on without years of quarrels, although in this case it was mainly due to the racing club, which did not agree to release its area. First it was supposed to move in 2018, then it was 2021, now it should happen in 2022. That has now been clarified, the DFB will leave the Otto Fleck aisle, so that should have been with the fabric in the walls. A nine catch elsewhere. A complete new start in terms of personnel would fit in perfectly.