“Ex-secret service agent” in action?
Ex-president reports on espionage in the DFB
October 16, 2023, 3:21 p.m
Fritz Keller was president of the German Football Association for two years, then he had to resign because of a Nazi comparison. Today he accuses the association of continually delaying the necessary change. His own attempts at renewal were openly sabotaged.
For former association president Fritz Keller, the German Football Association has not made much progress in overcoming the crisis. “So much has been swept under the carpet in recent years, there are still cases pending. I would expect the DFB to address the grievances in its internal audit more consistently and not somehow hope that everything stays under the carpet,” said Keller, who led the DFB from 2019 to 2021, told the “Frankfurter Rundschau”. “This store needs to be cleaned up. That still hasn’t happened enough.”
He expects more willingness to clarify, said Keller, who sees the DFB in a difficult financial situation. “Because we know that the DFB is as full of holes as a sieve, the operational experts in the financial sector who no one listened to and who they wanted to get rid of had to be paid off at a high price. Hush money was paid, so to speak.”
It is unbelievable how much money the DFB has spent on law firms and dubious “intelligence” companies alone. “Money that should be spent on football, not on lawyers and ex-secret service agents. In my view, these are all cases of infidelity,” complained the 66-year-old. Keller spoke of former agents in the context of the commitment of then DFL boss Christian Seifert to the DFB board. “They didn’t want Seifert because he dug deeper and asked critical questions. They then had former secret service agents observe him.”
Keller: DFB campus is “too pretentious and cocky”
Keller was forced to resign in May 2021 after he called then-Vice President Rainer Koch the name of a Nazi judge during a DFB meeting. Bernd Neuendorf succeeded Keller in March 2022.
Keller also expressed criticism of the DFB campus, which was “too ostentatious and cocky”. “The shell of the building was practically already in place when I became president. Of course it has become too expensive,” emphasized Keller, who fundamentally believes the campus is the right thing to do. However, it is unfortunate that officials could now collect up to 700,000 or even 800,000 euros again. “The DFB Bundestag decided this in March 2022. It was dutifully approved in the package without most delegates even noticing.”
Keller also sees the role of Andreas Rettig as the new sports director at the DFB as problematic. He does not have an illustrious past with the DFL and campaigned for Neuendorf. “In return, he will now receive this prominent position in the DFB. That has at least one flavor,” criticizes Keller.