Bernd Neuendorf has been confirmed as DFB President without competition. There was still controversy at the DFB Bundestag.
The 253 delegates present at the meeting at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt am Main unanimously expressed their confidence in Neuendorf for four more years. Neuendorf stood alone for re-election as DFB president.
In a speech, Neuendorf referred to the successful restructuring and financial consolidation of the DFB. “The DFB has restored its reputation. It is once again a reliable partner. For the DFL, for our state associations, for politics, the international associations and our partners”said Neuendorf.
Sinning narrowly wins against Raml
There was a real election for a position as vice president. Silke Raml (Bavaria) challenged incumbent Silke Sinning (Hesse). “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 front of the Bundestag in an interview with Sportschau. In the plenary session she literally appealed to the delegates. Football needs people “Show your attitude, don’t use tactics”. During her presentation in the plenary session, Raml emphasized that it was not about “Proportionality and the size of a regional association” go.
A secret vote was necessary: Sinning won by a narrow margin of 124 votes to 113 with three abstentions.
The number of women on the executive committee falls from five to three compared to 2022
The DFB launched a “Strategy Women in Football FF27” in 2021. The main goals set for 2027 included: “The proportion of women in committees and full-time management levels of the DFB is at least 30 percent.” This was already achieved in 2022, when five of the 15 members of the DFB Presidium were women. After the DFB Bundestag in 2025, the proportion will drop to 18 percent; only three of the now 16 members are female.
The reasons for this are Donata Hopfen’s withdrawal from the DFL 2022 and a personnel castling at the top of the DFB. Holger Blask is to act as the new general secretary; he is already managing director of DFB GmbH. The previous general secretary, Heike Ullrich, will now become vice president for women’s football, forcing Sabine Mammitzsch out of this position. The DFB had announced in advance that Mammitzsch “will not compete again”. Uwe Döring, president of Mammitzsch’s association from Schleswig-Holstein, made it clear in the Flensburger Tageblatt: “She had no intention of not running again.”
| 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 |
Other positions filled quietly
As proposed, all people were elected to the other positions on the Presidium without competition:
- Stephan Grunwald remains treasurer
- Hans-Joachim Watzke, Oliver Leki, Oke Göttlich and Marc Lenz were elected or confirmed as DFL representatives.
- Ronny Zimmermann (South German Association), Ralph-Uwe Schaffert (North German Association), Hermann Winkler (North-East German Association), Thomas Bergmann (South-West Association), Peter Frymuth (West German Association) occupy other positions on the executive board.
- Heike Ullrich (girls’/women’s football), Celia Sasic (diversity) and Matthias Schöck (newly created strategy position) were elected as vice-presidents.