Amateur football is going through hard times, Corona continues to shake everything up. Some of the 25,000 grassroots clubs are struggling to survive, players have to be kept on board and teams in operation, and the financial worries are great. But one group will have to worry less about finances in the future – at least about their own: officials who represent amateur football in the German Football Association (DFB).
On March 11, the Bundestag of the DFB is due to be brought forward, and a new president will be elected again. The favorite is Bernd Neuendorf, 61, the candidate of the amateur camp conducted by interim boss Rainer Koch. On the other hand, there is the professional representative Peter Peters, 59, whose demands include that Koch should no longer hold any relevant office – certainly not as a representative of German football in the Europa Union Uefa.
The hot phase of the election campaign is on. The proposals for the reform of the statutes, which are to take place in the Bundestag (are available to the SZ), now reveal how violent it is. They show the spirit in which the amateur armada should once again be committed to Koch and Co.: with a kind of cornucopia for officials.
The Compensation Committee is to be abolished
An independent committee headed by the former Wolfsburg VW manager Wolfgang Hotze is currently setting the salaries for the elected top staff; the range is from 51,600 euros (plus any loss of earnings) for normal members of the executive committee to 246,000 euros for the DFB president. But the independent watchdogs are no longer needed from the point of view of the amateurs who dominate the Presidium: they should be relieved of this task in the Bundestag. Instead, remuneration, expense allowances, loss of earnings or benefits in kind such as company cars or telephones are to be regulated in a new financial regulation to be decided by the Bundestag – so that, as the reasoning says, this topic can be regulated “even more transparently than before”. In case of doubt, the DFB board should now determine the distribution. In other words: the amateur representatives themselves.
Because the bulk of the board is made up of the members of the executive committee and all 26 presidents of the state and regional associations. It is precisely these sovereigns who should be the next beneficiaries of the reform, and unlike before, they should also be able to receive compensation in the future. It seems like mockery when the justification for the application states that it must be ensured that no committee member decides on the amount of their own remuneration.
The Munich criminal lawyer Hans-Joachim Eckert, former head of ethics at the world association Fifa, criticized the new idea as “no longer up to date”. “The creation of a finance committee made up of independent experts is advisable.” So what is about to be abolished.
The Executive Committee is to be increased by one more post
The fact that the central paper, the new financial regulation for regulating future remuneration, is not yet available fits into the picture of the new special transparency of the DFB. It should only be submitted to the Bundestag by way of an emergency motion. This is reminiscent of the dreary sports association practices of cheering the delegates on sensitive issues just before the meeting – when there is no time for detailed study and mature expertise. It is precisely in this Bundestag that such peasant tricks can prove to be expedient, because for the first time a contested candidacy for the presidency is pending: it draws everyone’s attention.
The bold compensation plans not only seem out of place in economically precarious times. Since January 1, core areas of the association have been outsourced to the new DFB GmbH & Co. KG, hundreds of full-time employees are at work – why do you need so many officials in the presidency? What is the main work performance in the association?
The amateur camp obviously sees things differently. It wants to inflate the official apparatus even further, an additional post in the 14-strong presidency, a vice for diversity and equality is desired – and thus another remuneration case. As if this couldn’t be solved by redistributing departments.
The League is pushing for secret elections in the Bundestag
Would you like more posts? There is said DFB GmbH, which runs the million-dollar business around the national team and the DFB Cup. It has a board of directors. However, external specialists from the economy are not in such high demand, there will certainly be experts in the amateur camp. The German Football League around candidate Peters sees all of this with concern. But if the league sticks together, it can torpedo the new self-service strategy in the Bundestag with its blocking minority of a third of the votes. Although Peters should know that his chances of being elected in the amateur camp around Koch, Neuendorf and Co. are close to zero.
Because the compensation capers are in a piquant context. During the power struggles of the past few months, parts of the amateurs increasingly turned their backs on their longtime leader Rainer Koch. In May, he even narrowly survived a vote of confidence in Potsdam with 21:13 – thanks to his full office, he was able to have four votes himself. Now, intentionally or not, the prospect of greater, hands-off rewards among themselves could help close the grassroots front tight again.
Not only in terms of remuneration, but also in the overall assessment, the plans of the amateurs and the defensive movements of the professionals have the effect of the great battle for Koch’s future, who, by the way, as Vice Lawyer is also the supreme guardian of the statutes. The league is pushing hard for secret elections in the Bundestag: there Koch has to fight for a deputy office and thus stay in the presidium. This is the only way he can keep his well-endowed Uefa board mandate. But what if the elections are secret – like in Potsdam?
The Hamburg state association submits a curious application
An application from Hamburg provides information that looks like real satire: The Hanseatic League under the new President Christian Okun want the Vice Presidents proposed by the regional associations to be allowed to be nominated again, if they are not confirmed by the Bundestag: It will be “in the same meeting at the suggestion of the respective regional association and confirmed”. There is no talk of new candidates. According to this, “new” nominations could be made again and again – until the okay came from annoyed or desperate delegates.
In addition, the DFB Presidium has submitted an application that is intended to grant adventurous powers to the ethics committee and in particular to its chairman Irina Kummert. Accordingly, she, a non-lawyer, could in future single-handedly discontinue proceedings without consulting her legal colleagues and, in particular, without consulting the sports court. At the same time, the ethics committee has had a sensitive complaint about Koch since the summer. And the head of ethics, Kummert, has so far presented himself as loyal to Koch.
The German amateur base can be sure: Your DFB officials, they’re going to do it right. For whoever.
