As football insider Peter Linden reports, the Bundesliga is increasingly intervening in the planned structural reform at the ÖFB. In the future there should be no president, only a chairman. League boss Christian Ebenbauer presented the corresponding organizational chart at the executive board meeting last Friday. As oe24 already reported, the Styrian football boss Wolfgang Bartosch was elected as ÖFB president and the successor to Klaus Mitterdorfer.
Bundesliga candidate for top job
But why is the structural reform initiated by Mitterdorfer being pushed further in the current chaos? It’s clear: The Bundesliga, which is represented with three votes on the executive committee (Christian Jauk, Christian Ebenbauer and Philipp Thonhauser), wants to use the power vacuum to reorganize the association and, ideally, send a candidate from its ranks to the front row.
Annerl or Schmid?
The hottest rumor: Brigitte Annerl, President of TSV Hartberg, is being positioned internally for the new ÖFB boss position. The Styria Connection around Bartosch and Jauk should make this possible. Another option, however, is Roland Schmid. As an external candidate with good connections to team boss Ralf Rangnick, he could be the bridge builder we are looking for to bring calm back to the association.
Bartosch will stop in 2025
The fact is: Bartosch’s term of office runs until the next general meeting, which, as things stand, will take place on May 18, 2025 in Bregenz. Bartosch ruled out staying in this job for a longer period of time and jokingly declared his resignation as a precautionary measure after the general meeting. “No one needs to ask me to do that,” said the 66-year-old.
