Neuendorf or Peters: DFB elects new president

Created: 03/11/2022, 08:50

Candidate for the DFB presidential office: Peter Peters.

© Andreas Gora/dpa

The German Football Association, which has been plagued by crises for several years, has again had to elect a president unscheduled.

A lot of work awaits the new head of the association.

Bonn - Almost ten months after Fritz Keller's resignation, the German Football Association is electing a new president.

At the DFB Bundestag in Bonn this Friday (10.15 a.m.), Bernd Neuendorf (60) will be the candidate of the powerful amateur camp around permanent official Rainer Koch and Peter Peters (59), who is supported by professional football.

Neuendorf is the clear favorite.

Candidate for the DFB presidential office: Ronny Zimmermann.

© picture alliance / Andreas Arnold / dpa

No matter who leads the largest sports association in the world in the future - he has a lot of work ahead of him.

In the run-up to the Bundestag, both applicants never tired of emphasizing that, in the event of an election, they wanted to bring about change in the DFB, which had been in crisis for years.

There are enough construction sites.

The executive staff:

Opinions are particularly divided on the long-standing 1st Vice President Rainer Koch.

For some he is a reliable and indispensable representative of the interests of the amateur camp, for others a shrewd string puller and "a crackpot", as ex-president Fritz Keller put it in a statement to the 262 delegates at the beginning of the week.

Koch has held the post since 2007.

During this time he saw four presidents, three of whom had to resign prematurely.

Each time, the Bavarian took over the interim management of the association until the respective new elections.

This will now be over, as the 63-year-old will no longer stand for election as 1st Vice President.

However, he is aiming for a leadership role in the presidency again.

Finances:

The association is still economically healthy.

But the audit committee has identified a worrying development in the medium-term financial situation, as long-time chairman Ulrich Ruf recently told the “Frankfurter Rundschau”.

He expects a structural deficit in the next few years.

In particular, the new academy - the flagship project of the association - will cost the DFB more than planned.

According to the examiners, the maximum estimated and approved costs of EUR 150 million will not be sufficient.

For the outgoing treasurer Stephan Osnabrügge, it is therefore inevitable that the DFB will cut costs.

The scandals:

And then there are the shadows of the past: Just last week, tax investigators turned up once more at the Frankfurt association headquarters and confiscated documents.

The latest affair is about an alleged bogus contract with an external consultant who is said to have received 360,000 euros.

more on the subject

DFB: Three ex-presidents call for the end of the “Koch system”

"False contract": Public prosecutor investigates against DFB

"False contract": Public prosecutor investigates against DFB

The summer fairy tale scandal, in the course of which the tax office demanded a back tax payment of 19.2 million euros from the DFB in 2017, has not yet been fully clarified.

The former DFB boss Theo Zwanziger therefore recently recommended the future leadership of the association for the new beginning: "Only the truth helps." dpa