Call for “Real New Beginnings”
Ex-DFB bosses call for the end of the “Koch system”
03/07/2022, 7:15 p.m
A new president will be elected at the DFB Bundestag on Friday. Shortly before that, three former DFB bosses go on the offensive and call for a “real new beginning” – without the long-time official Rainer Koch. He fights back and is defended.
Shortly before the groundbreaking Bundestag of the German Football Association, three former DFB presidents demanded the departure of the highly controversial top man Rainer Koch from all offices. “End the Koch system and ensure a real fresh start in the DFB,” wrote Fritz Keller, Reinhard Grindel and Theo Zwanziger in a statement to the delegates who will primarily elect a new president at the DFB Bundestag on Friday. Koch is up for election for the position of Vice President.
“My experience is: Koch is a cleavage, he lives from intrigue. His system is that of conjuring up false enemy images, of exerting pressure. I’m sure the delegates know from their own experience what I’m talking about,” said Keller, who is in the May 2021 after a very personal dispute with Koch had to resign. During a DFB meeting, Keller addressed Koch by the name of a Nazi judge.
A web of intrigues?
The differences with intrigues and intrigues within the DFB management level have been a burden on the association for years. The current interim president Koch has been on the DFB executive committee since 2007 and has seen four DFB presidents. Critics see the 63-year-old from Poing as partly responsible for a number of crises. “The statements – especially from Reinhard Grindel and Fritz Keller – are absurd. They are general, defamatory statements without any facts and any substance,” said Koch on request. “The fact is that it was only personal misconduct that led to both resignations. For a long time now, I’ve been targeted with maliciously spread untruths.”
In the past week, the DFB had another visit from investigators from the Frankfurt/Main public prosecutor’s office. It was about an alleged “bogus contract” with a communications consultant whose (expensive) role in the DFB thicket of recent years remains opaque. Here, too, Koch is accused of playing a decisive role, but the 63-year-old, who represents the DFB on the Executive Committee of the European Football Union UEFA, is not part of the investigation.
“With the intrigues against people, it has always been accepted that the integrity of the DFB was damaged at the same time. That has to come to an end,” said Grindel, who had to resign in 2019 because of accepting a watch from a Ukrainian official. Together, the ex-president trio calls for a “change in the culture of the association. Power games, intrigues and indiscretions must be a thing of the past.”
Flick also wants a fresh start
For the DFB Bundestag, the starting position is somewhat complex – Koch’s future does not only depend on his own choice. Bernd Neuendorf, who is supported by the amateur representatives, and former Schalke CFO Peter Peters are applying for the presidency as a candidate sponsored by professional football. Under no circumstances does Peters want to continue with Koch in the presidency, Neuendorf has not distanced himself. On the contrary: the former state secretary in the NRW family ministry is also assigned to the Koch camp. Both reject the accusation of prior agreements.
After a meeting, the conference of state and regional association presidents announced via the DFB that they disapproved of the statement by the three ex-presidents. “The declaration is aimed exclusively at damaging Rainer Koch as a person,” it said. “The members of the conference introduce themselves to Rainer Koch.”
The “Kicker” reported on Sunday evening from a meeting of Peters, Keller, Grindel and Zwanziger in Frankfurt/Main. Wolfgang Niersbach, whose term of office ended in 2015 because of the summer fairy tale affair, was not there. The ex-presidents do not have a vote in the Bundestag.
The statements by Hansi Flick also made it clear how stressful the situation is for the entire association. “I hope there will be a new beginning,” said the national coach on Sunday evening on ARD. It would “do everyone good if positive news came again”. Flick did not say in the ARD “Sportschau” on Sunday evening which of the candidates he would like to lead the association.