Turbulence in the sports association: DOSB CEO Rücker vacates her post

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Veronika Rücker

Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa

In the fuss about an anonymous letter from the group of employees, DOSB CEO Veronika Rücker also loses her post.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation had agreed with the 51-year-old on "an amicable termination of the cooperation" at the end of the year, the umbrella organization announced.

The vague justification in the DOSB's press release reads as follows: They wanted to enable "a new staffing also in the area of ​​the main office".

DOSB President Alfons Hörmann had previously announced that he would give up his office.

The turbulence at the DOSB was triggered by complaints from employees about a “culture of fear” in the association's headquarters.

Most recently, it became known that top DOSB officials around Rücker and Hörmann had asked the former board member Karin Fehres, under threat of a criminal complaint and civil suit, to confess to be the author of the anonymous mail of May 6th.

Fehres had rejected this as "absurd and baseless".

(Read more on the subject here.)

Because of this process, Hörmann and Rücker came under fire again.

The declaration of the DOSB top: They followed the assessments of the legal advisors and made attempts to clarify the background of the employee allegations out of court.

Rücker was "still convinced that it was fundamentally correct and that it was our responsibility to investigate the background of the letter in order to protect the DOSB," the message continues: "We can understand that the chosen approach in retrospect is disproportionate appears and is rightly criticized. We regret if this approach gave the impression that Dr. Fehres should be put under undue pressure. «There should be no further legal steps» in order not to let the process escalate further «.

A new presidium is to be elected in Weimar on December 4th, and the CSU politician Stephan Mayer is considered a promising candidate.

In addition, a selection committee recommended the ex-world-class fencer Claudia Bokel and the outgoing table tennis world president Thomas Weikert as candidates.

With the end of Rückert, another top job will soon be available.

mon / dpa