Ex-DFL boss Rettig takes over
DFB announces surprising Bierhoff successor
September 15, 2023, 10:10 a.m
After the rejections of Nadine Keßler and Sami Khedira, the DFB still finds a successor for Oliver Bierhoff. In the future, Andreas Rettig will be responsible for the national teams and the academy at the crisis-plagued association. The choice is quite surprising.
The German Football Association (DFB) has found a successor for Oliver Bierhoff: former Bundesliga manager and top DFL official Andreas Rettig will be the new managing director of the crisis-plagued association. The DFB announced this. The 60-year-old will be responsible for the national teams and academy in the future. According to the DFB, the supervisory board and shareholders’ meeting unanimously approved this surprising personnel decision.
“In Andreas Rettig we have gained an extremely experienced, committed and assertive managing director. I am convinced that he will tackle the tasks ahead of us in the area of sport with great passion,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf: “Completing the diverse administrative tasks Tasks related to the national teams and the academy require a strong personality. I am therefore pleased that Andreas Rettig has decided to join the DFB.”
Andreas Rettig himself said he was looking forward to the challenges ahead. “Our national teams represent Germany in its diversity and performance. They are characterized by great successes and current problems,” he explained in the DFB statement. “I would like to help make future successes for the national teams possible again and improve the direction of the DFB and the appearance of its teams in all directions.”
His predecessor Bierhoff resigned after the World Cup debacle last year. The search for a successor kept the DFB busy for several months. It was recently announced that there was no agreement with ex-national player Sami Khedira, and former national player Nadine Keßler canceled.
Rettig has been active in football for almost four decades. He was manager at Bayer Leverkusen, SC Freiburg, 1. FC Köln and FC Augsburg. At FC St. Pauli he served as managing director and at Viktoria Köln as chairman of the board. He gained association experience as managing director of the German Football League from 2013 to 2015. He was on the DFB board for many years and, as chairman of the commission, was responsible for the introduction of youth training centers.
Rettig is considered a controversial personality. Because of his views, he has repeatedly been offended in the past and is controversial in the industry.