Sports policy: DOSB announces change in leadership on the board

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) has announced a change at the top of the board. The DOSB announced this after the current chairman, Torsten Burmester, was presented as the SPD candidate for the mayoral election on September 14, 2025 in Cologne.

“Regardless of the outcome of the election, there will be a change at the top of the DOSB main office,” it said in a statement. The umbrella organization for German sports initially did not provide any further details – including when the change should take place. “Publication of further details would inevitably affect the personal rights of individuals.” The DOSB left it open what this formulation meant.

Media: Burmester sees no conflict of interest

According to media reports, Burmester is said to have stated that he sees no conflict of interest between the candidacy and his main DOSB office. The DOSB obviously sees it differently. According to the information, the contract between the umbrella organization and Burmester was extended until 2029 at the beginning of the year.

The announcement to separate from Burmester comes a good two weeks before the DOSB general meeting on December 7th in Saarbrücken and in the midst of important sports policy issues in Germany. On the one hand, the application for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is up for debate, and on the other hand, the future of the planned sports funding law is uncertain after the traffic light coalition has left.

Burmester was personal advisor to then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) from 2002 to 2005. He then worked as deputy head of the sports department in the Federal Ministry of the Interior and as head of the commercial law department in the Ministry of Economics, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2022, Burmester took over the chairmanship of the DOSB after being general secretary of the German Disabled Sports Association.