Wednesday, November 03, 2021
Ex-President wedges against Koch
The most brutal DFB billing ever
Fritz Keller has not worked for the German Football Association since May, but the association still employs him. The dispute with the co-interim president Rainer Koch is far from over. He is now heavily settling accounts with him.
Former DFB President Fritz Keller is following up in the conflict with Rainer Koch. The current co-interim president of the German Football Association is someone “who, in my opinion, lacks any moral compass who has been forging intrigues for years, putting people inside and outside of the DFB with its clusters under massive pressure,” said Keller of “Sport Bild.” “.
“I am firmly convinced that he at least helped initiate the smear campaigns against my predecessors and against me through the media advisor Kurt Diekmann, who was paid by the DFB,” said the 64-year-old, who resigned in mid-May after only 598 days. The reason was the escalated power struggle within the DFB. Keller together with Peter Peters, who is running for the office of future DFB President, against Koch, Treasurer Stephan Osnabrügge and Friedrich Curtius, who was General Secretary until the end of May, according to Keller, inside the DFB. These three would have tried “with a few helpers to block any change, transparency and professionalization at the DFB”.
He raises the most serious allegations against Koch: “Probably Wolfgang Niersbach was already betrayed by Koch, who had information about the research on the summer fairy tale affair before him, but did not inform Niersbach about it. So the DB took and is suffering massive and long-term damage.” He argues that Koch, who is the President of the Bavarian Football Association, should leave the DFB: “It is time for this to come to an end.” A new beginning is not possible with Koch. “I am stunned that some sovereigns still allow themselves to be instrumentalized by him in such a way.” Koch was engaging in “power games”, and Keller indirectly called on him to step down from his position: “Anyone with decency would not want to burden the South German and the Bavarian Football Association any further with such an external presentation.”
“Was too gullible and good-natured”
Also Curtius, who no longer works for the DFB, who lost the trust of the regional and state association bosses in May in the leadership dispute, whereupon the 45-year-old and the association ended their cooperation “amicably”, and Osnabrügge attacked the former president of SC Freiburg. “The problem with the DFB are in the vast majority of cases officials who do not see football, but only themselves. Those who see the DFB as a self-service shop – we’re talking about volunteering, this money is lost to amateur football – and who put each other on . ” When he took office, Curtius “expressly stated that he did not want any change,” said Keller. “Treasurer Osnabrügge a labor lawyer, not a financial expert – sometimes decides against the express advice of internal and external experts.”
In addition, Keller suggests that some of the DFB employees are not entirely honest. For him, there is a suspicion that airline miles collected on business are used privately. He once asked how he could donate it to offset CO2 emissions – “there was a real outcry”. In 2002 the so-called “bonus miles affair” of some members of the Bundestag after the announcement of the “Bild” newspaper caused a great outcry and even resignations.
According to Keller, he regrets not having pushed for personnel changes when he took office in September 2019, and specifically, “We’re talking about the Secretary General and the Treasurer. Because, in my experience, there was a lack of both professional and human qualifications.” Keller, who is now working in the family’s catering business again, sees it as his biggest mistake “that I was too good-natured and good-natured in the talks with the search committee before I took office, and that I had too much trust”.
In his experience, Keller is now campaigning for a term limit “so that this felt can finally be removed”. BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke, on the other hand, receives praise, who as the future DFL supervisory board chairman will also be the first DFB vice-president: “Aki Watzke is a footballer down to the last hair tip, he fights for football. I am one hundred percent sure that he is right man is in the right place. ” Keller is certain: “He will certainly not accept an approach as before, where Koch only pursued a camp formation with great potential for conflict: amateurs against professionals.”