A groundbreaking date for the German Football Association was scheduled for this Wednesday: after many delays, the Frankfurt Labor Court wanted to announce its verdict on the dismissal dispute between the DFB and its former employee Samy Hamama. But the appointment was cancelled. Instead, the authority confirms, the two parties agreed at the beginning of the week on a settlement presented by the court. But what came out of it is not to be seen as a draw – but as a clear defeat for the DFB.
Because the core of the result is that the association has brought through neither the termination without notice nor the ordinary termination. The ongoing dispute with Hamama also cost him an unnecessarily large amount of money. And the outcome of the proceedings also sends a signal in the biggest affair that continues to concern the DFB: the inconsistencies surrounding a mysterious and expensive consultancy contract, which the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office is now investigating on suspicion of infidelity.
The Hamama-Causa is part of the confused processes surrounding the 2019 assignment of the media consultant Kurt Diekmann – for which it is still unclear what exactly is behind it. The former DFB leadership around Vice-President Rainer Koch, Treasurer Stephan Osnabrügge and General Secretary Friedrich Curtius, all of whom are no longer in office, presented Diekmann’s EUR 360,000 activity as media support for the separation from marketing partner Infront. The then President Fritz Keller, on the other hand, suspected a media cabal against him, but saw himself blocked from internal investigations. So Keller, after all the liable DFB board member, asked his office manager Hamama to inspect Diekmann’s invoices in the in-house controlling department.
The public prosecutor’s office is now investigating the mysterious consultant affair
Shortly after a contribution by the ZDF sports studio in February 2021, in which an invoice from the communications consultant was shown, the DFB Hamama terminated without notice, and days later also properly. Hamama is said to have taken unauthorized insight into important classified information and even passed the papers on to ZDF; he had violated confidentiality obligations. Media agent Diekmann even filed a criminal complaint at the same time.
Since then, however, neither internal nor external auditors have been able to understand the deeper meaning of the expensive consulting contract. Even more puzzling: Even the then DFB top trio was no help in finding a conclusive explanation. In March, the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office launched raids on the DFB and several consulting firms. Curtius and Diekmann are being investigated (both reject the allegations), the authority speaks of a possible “bogus contract”.
The labor law procedure was correspondingly important for the DFB. If the court had considered the termination to be legal, at least the ordinary one, then he could henceforth have classified the Diekmann documents as material that had good reason to be treated with particular discretion internally. So defiantly did the DFB go through with the dispute with the Hamama, which was already willing to settle last year, that it soon fueled the suspicion that it was not so much about legal goals as about sports policy: finally getting a non-disclosure label for the Diekmann contract.
If the DFB had not accepted the comparison, it would have been a crushing public defeat
The association was not irritated by the fact that the judge publicly wondered why President Keller should not be able to see such bills – and clearly signaled that the terminations were not tenable. Also piquant: Numerous independent instances – the internal audit committee, the ethics committee and the works council – positioned themselves firmly against the approach of the DFB managers towards Hamama.
Now the outcome of the procedure torpedoes the previous story of the DFB. In a statement published in a hurry after inquiries on Wednesday, he wants to maintain the impression that a very comfortable agreement has been reached: “After the Frankfurt Labor Court proposed a settlement to the parties at the beginning of April 2022, Samy Hamama dropped his lawsuit, in the same way The DFB no longer derives any rights from the allegations of dismissal.”
But the parties actually agreed on the essentials for Hamama – and on explosive issues for the further proceedings: Both terminations are irrelevant. Which is why the employment relationship was terminated by mutual agreement in June 2021. Which basically also means: All allegations made in the course of the termination without notice and the ordinary termination cannot be upheld. According to SZ information, the DFB had tried to enforce its view of things until the end of the period set by the court. The result allows one to conclude that if the DFB had not accepted the court’s proposal, the proceedings would have resulted in a verdict that would have been a crushing public defeat for the association.
The cause has now become very expensive for the DFB
Now the previous questions to the then top trio Curtius, Koch, Osnabrugge are harder than ever. But also to the new President Bernd Neuendorf, who has been in office since March 11th. Because he, too, did not moderate the sensitive issue freely in the weeks after taking office, but only now, in view of an imminent judgment. And how he proceeds with it is a crucial point.
The cause has become expensive for the DFB. According to SZ information, the entire process, including consultations and the financial agreement with Hamama, cost the non-profit association more than 500,000 euros – the DFB does not deny this. In any case, it is considerably more than if he had sought the agreement that was offered at an early stage. At the chamber meeting, it became obvious that Hamama was asking for a total of almost 300,000 euros and the DFB was only offering around 65,000 euros. Is the DFB now considering claims for damages against the former top people who had so stubbornly clung to the dismissal dispute? The DFB says nothing about this either.
It is clearer than ever, however, that the Diekmann affair will remain with the DFB for a long time. The infidelity investigations are ongoing, and now a court has found no confidentiality features in the consultancy contract: the new association leadership must gradually position itself. The ex-SPD politician Neuendorf obviously sees things differently. On Saturday he remarked in the ZDF sports studio that the term “clean up” was “not my vocabulary at all”. On Saturday he remarked in the ZDF sports studio that the term “clean up” was “not my vocabulary at all”. The documents on the affairs are with the responsible state authorities and are in good hands there.
As if the new DFB weren’t right in the middle.
