The German Tennis Association (DTB) has decided to reform its structure. A full-time board of directors will be installed.
This board of directors should have overall responsibility in the future, the DTB announced after an extraordinary general meeting on Saturday (07/22/2023) in Hamburg.
The Executive Committee will continue to work on an honorary basis and will take on the role of a supervisory board and also determine the composition of the new board of directors. A Federal Council, in which the 17 regional associations are represented, will become an advisory body to the Executive Committee. A two-thirds majority was required, and according to the DTB, the general assembly unanimously voted in favor of the reform.
Hope for modernization and professionalization
“The modernization of the DTB structures is one of the most important reforms since the association was founded,” said DTB President Dietloff von Arnim, according to the DTB announcement. The desire is to create “more efficiency and professionalism within the association” in order to “lead tennis in Germany into a modern future”.
At the general meeting in November, the honorary executive committee is to be elected on the basis of the new structure. Von Arnim, who followed Ulrich Klaus in 2021, may then be in a different position: he is applying for the presidency of the world association ITF. On September 24, he will be running for election in Cancun, Mexico, against incumbent David Haggerty from the USA. The ITF had to prematurely terminate a billion-dollar deal with an investor group for the rights to the Davis Cup, which drew criticism from Haggerty.
20 Euros competition fee? No vote on “tennis.de plus” yet
According to the DTB, the “tennis.de plus” concept has not yet been voted on. According to initial plans, media players should pay an annual fee of 20 euros from 2024 – which many clubs and some state associations criticized. The DTB announced that this topic was “still being discussed”.