The voluntary leadership of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) withdrew the application for “appropriate flat-rate compensation for expenses for members of the executive board” shortly before the general meeting in Frankfurt.
This became known the evening before the German sports meeting on Saturday (from 9:00 a.m./livestream on www.dosb.de) in the Kap Europa Congress Center. The application had been controversially discussed in advance.
President Thomas Weikert and his colleagues wanted the delegates to agree to be “compensated within an appropriate framework for lost professional earnings.” According to the DOSB, lawyer Weikert worked for the umbrella organization on 154 days on 278 appointments this year and was not available to his law firm in Limburg during this time. Doctor Kerstin Holze, vice president of the umbrella organization for German sports, recently compared her time spent working for the DOSB to half a job.
The application met with criticism from specialist associations and state sports associations, especially since a decision on a “contribution adjustment” for the 28 million DOSB members from 9 to 14 cents from January 1, 2025 is on the agenda. There was a risk of heated public discussions, which the executive committee averted by withdrawing the application.
But it’s not completely off the table yet. At the general meeting in 2025, the expense allowances for the volunteers at the top of the DOSB could become an issue again. Regardless, Weikert will remain in office. The president, who will be elected until 2026, has not yet linked his commitment to compensation for lost professional income.