President Bernd Neuendorf has only been in office for about two weeks, but is already facing important decisions – in terms of personnel and content.
Bernd Neuendorf is pretty busy. Extraordinary executive committee meeting, visit to Sepp Herberger’s grave, international match double pack, award ceremony in Berlin – the new president of the German Football Association (DFB) gets around a lot right at the beginning of his term of office. But Neuendorf’s considerations between the appointments are decisive.
The 60-year-old’s ideas about realigning the crisis-ridden association seem to have actually matured. Neuendorf has now positioned itself, especially with a view to the affairs of the past and the DFB representation in the Council of the World Association FIFA and in the Executive Committee of the European Football Union (UEFA).
Things are not looking too good for his former opponent Peter Peters (FIFA) and former top official Rainer Koch (UEFA). At least that’s what Neuendorf’s first concrete statements on this topic in the Spiegel show.
“Rainer Koch and Peter Peters, our two representatives, clearly lost in the votes and no longer have an office on the Executive Committee,” said Neuendorf: “With regard to the upcoming European Championships in Germany in 2024 and for the application for the Women’s World Cup in 2027, we need a strong international representation.”
In order to ensure personnel changes, however, the DFB presidium around Neuendorf must act quickly. The next UEFA Congress is already on the agenda for May 11 in Vienna. A new German ex-member could be elected there and a new DFB representative sent to the FIFA Council.
The prerequisite for this, however, is that Koch (term of office until 2025) and Peters (until 2024) voluntarily vacate their lucrative posts. This is explosive – as the past has already proven. So there was a lot of trouble when ex-president Theo Zwanziger did not want to give up his FIFA position in 2014 despite the request of the DFB executive committee.
Whether the current situation can be defused better seems open – even if Neuendorf has already given a hint: “Such an association is not a wish-you-what. The new leadership has been voted on democratically.”
Neuendorf sees “enormous image damage”
In addition, however, there is still the unresolved question of possible successors. Although Neuendorf is being pushed into office by ex-President Reinhard Grindel, among others, the new boss is obviously not drawn to international committees. “My first priority is to lead the DFB in calm waters and not to think about what position I want to take next,” said Neuendorf.
On the other hand, one of his priorities is to speed up the processing of the past scandals. “I had the documents compiled and see if there is a need for action,” said Neuendorf on “ZDF” with a view to the pending legal proceedings: “If there is a need, action must be taken.”
Neuendorf, who attests to the DFB’s “enormous image damage” due to the affair, also hopes for the help of the public prosecutor’s office: “It would be nice if the investigations didn’t drag on for years and we had a conclusion, whatever it looks like .”
However, that was what Neuendorf’s failed predecessors had wanted.