Confirmed: DFL boss Donata Hopfen will stop at the end of the year

Complained about the lack of support

The German Football League and Managing Director Donata Hopfen end their collaboration at the end of the year. The supervisory board and the 46-year-old had agreed on this, the DFL announced on Wednesday. The reason for the separation are different ideas about the further strategic direction of the company, it said. Hopfen had only assumed the chairmanship of the committee at the beginning of the year, succeeding Christian Seifert.


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According to information from the “Deutsche Presse-Agentur”, Axel Hellmann from Eintracht Frankfurt and Oliver Leki from SC Freiburg are to take over the DFL leadership on an interim basis (Transfermarkt reported). For the new season, the management is to be redistributed again.

“I’m grateful for the time and the work with the clubs and my team,” Hopfen was quoted as saying in a DFL statement. “It was an intense time, I got to know and appreciate a lot of great people. I’m leaving knowing that I’ve started the right things.” Originally, Hopfen was given a three-year contract until the end of 2024. Previously, the “Media Woman of the Year” 2014 worked for the management consultancy “Accenture”, then for 14 years for the “Axel-Springer-Verlag” and finally for the consulting firm “BCG Digital Ventures”.

With 3 Bundesliga pros: top scorers 2022/23 in Europe’s top leagues

7 Niclas filling jug | Werder Bremen | 12 points

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10 goals/2 assists in 14 games
(as of December 6, 2022)

7 Florian Sotoca | RC Lens | 12 points

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6 goals/6 assists in 15 games

7 Alexandre Lacazette | Olympique Lyon | 12 points

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9 goals/3 assists in 15 games

7 Goncalo Ramos | Benfica | 12 points

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9 goals/3 assists in 11 games

7 JonathanDavid | LOSC Lille | 12 points

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9 goals/3 assists in 15 games

7 Victor Osimhen | SSC Napoli | 12 points

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9 goals/3 assists in 11 games

7 Ivan Toney | Brentford | 12 points

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10 goals/2 assists in 14 games

5 Marcus Thuram | Borussia Monchengladbach | 13 points

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10 goals/3 assists in 15 games

5 Harry Kane | Tottenham | 13 points

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12 goals/1 assist in 15 games

4 Kylian Mbappe | PSG | 14 points

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12 goals/2 assists in 14 games

3 Randal Kolo Muani | Eintracht Frankfurt | 15 points

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5 goals/10 assists in 14 games

2 Robert Lewandowski | FC Barcelona | 17 points

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13 goals/4 assists in 14 games

1 Erling Haaland | Man City | 21 points

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18 goals/3 assists in 13 games

DFL: Hopfen lost the trust of the supervisory board around BVB boss Watzke

According to consistent reports, hops have lost the trust of the supervisory board in the past few weeks. The committee is chaired by Borussia Dortmund’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke, who also plays a key role in the personnel discussion in the German Football Association.

Hopfen was criticized, among other things, because of the problems with the sale of international media rights. The DFL boss is also said to have failed to convince her critics on other important issues such as the 50+1 rule or digitization. The 50+1 rule only applies to German professional football and is intended to ensure that the registered parent club retains decision-making power even if it has spun off its professional football department into a corporation. It limits the influence of external investors. The Cartel Office criticizes exceptions for some clubs and expects clarification from the DFL.

DFL managing director Hopfen criticized the lack of support

Update 8:50 p.m.: On the social network “LinkedIn”, hops complained about a lack of backing. “Like many before me, I came into this job from outside, as a non-soccer player, as a woman with a clear plan on how the DFL can be led into the future: digitally, internationally and with strong partners and shareholders,” wrote you. “Such a transformation is a tour de force and requires courage. One often acts on new terrain, positive results usually only become apparent much later. All of this requires staying power, the support and the joint action of all stakeholders. In the end, I no longer felt this.”

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