German football should become more diverse and female, said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf during his election in 2022. Before the DFB Bundestag it is clear: the proportion of women in the presidium will decrease.
“We need more women, more people with an immigrant background and more young people in football as a whole,” said Neuendorf in 2022. With regard to the DFB Presidium, this initially seemed to be fulfilled with a view to the participation of women. For years, Hannelore Ratzeburg was the only woman on the executive board. From the day of his election, Neuendorf led a 15-member executive committee, initially a third of which was female.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf
- Silke Sinning from the Hessian association surprisingly won the election against the long-standing vice president Rainer Koch from Bavaria.
- Sabine Mammitzsch became vice president for women’s football.
- Celia Sasic was given the position of vice president for equality and diversity.
- Heike Ullrich became the new general secretary and thus part of the DFB executive board in accordance with the statutes.
- Donata hops As managing director of the DFL, she was also automatically part of the executive committee.
DFB Vice President Silke Sinning from Hesse
The enthusiasm was great. “There’s a lot of new beginnings in there.”said Secretary General Heike Ullrich at the time. The contents “Perhaps they will be designed a little differently than we did before in terms of composition”said Ullrich. Three years later, the presidium looks different and it is already clear before the Bundestag: The committee will consist of 16 instead of 15 people in the future because Matthias Schöck from the Württemberg association is to be added as a vice president for strategy issues. However, the proportion of females drops from five to three.
“A lot of new beginnings” – the DFB Presidium with five women in 2022
| Post | Number |
|---|---|
president | 1 |
Treasurer | 1 |
Secretary General | 1 |
Vice Diversity | 1 |
Vice Women’s Football | 1 |
Vice Strategy* | 1 |
DFL** | 4 |
State and regional associations | 6 |
* Post will be introduced in 2025
** One person comes from the management of DFL GmbH, three from the executive board of DFL eV
Hops went himself, Mammitzsch has to follow
The reasons for this:
Holger Blask is the DFB’s preferred candidate for the post of general secretary. He was previously Chairman of the Management Board of DFB GmbH & Co. KG and will hold both positions in the future. He used to work in TV marketing at the DFL. The current general secretary Ullrich is – subject to her election – to move to the post of the previous vice president Mammitzsch, who, according to the DFB, “will no longer run”. According to information from the Sportschau, Mammitzsch would have liked to continue, but the decision came as a surprise to her.
The previous DFB Vice President Sabine Mammitzsch
Due to her resignation from the DFL at the end of 2022, Donata Hopfen’s place automatically went to one of her two successors; DFL managing director Marc Lenz now sits in her place on the DFB executive committee in accordance with the statutes.
There will be two fewer women on the executive board in 2025 than in 2023.
Fight vote between two women
Another woman is running for the presidency. The southern German association, which unites five state associations including Hesse and Bavaria as a regional association, nominated Silke Raml from Bavaria alongside Ronny Zimmermann. However, this will not increase the proportion of women, because Raml is now competing against Silke Sinning from Hesse, who won the election in 2022 against the Bavarian DFB vice-president Koch.
Silke Raml from the Bavarian Football Association
A choice between people makes democratic sense in the competition for better ideas. In football associations, however, opposing candidacies are extremely rare and the search for such competition for the position on the DFB presidium is largely in vain – with the exception of Silke Sinning’s place. “The fact that the Bavarian Football Association would like to have a position on the executive board again did not come as a complete surprise to me.”said Sinning in an interview with Sportschau. Does she expect a comeback because of her win against Koch in 2022? Sinning says: “The first thing that’s important to me is that I would like to fill this position again.”
Three instead of five women: The reasons lie throughout German football
In the run-up to the elections it is clear that the problem affects the entire structure of German football:
- The DFB leadership under Neuendorf accepted that there would be one less woman on the executive committee for Holger Blask’s personnel.
- Four representatives on the DFB executive committee come from the DFL – all four are men. Only men sit on the DFL presidium; there is only one woman on the supervisory board, Anne Baumann from Darmstadt 98.
- The state and regional associations nominate candidates for five positions, one of which will now be held by a woman.
“One can of course wish that the executive board might get more women here or there.”says Sinning. “But they are actually not in view now.” Will there perhaps be a regional president at some point, or even a DFB president? Sinning asked and gave the answer himself: “So that’s going to take a while.”