The DFB campus will open in Frankfurt on Thursday. The association associates some hopes with this.
Since the spring, there has been increasing activity on the almost 50,000 square meter site in Frankfurt’s Niederrad district. Over the past few months, all of the more than 500 employees have gradually moved into the premises of the new headquarters, which cost 150 million euros, including the academy.
The employees did not have to travel a long way to do this. Just under two kilometers separate the association’s headquarters in the Otto-Fleck-Schneise from its new home in Kennedyallee, which was admired by the sports directors and some of the trainers of the professional clubs during tours. “This is a quantum leap for the entire DFB”said Academy boss Tobias Haupt.
No permanent office for Hansi Flick
The style and technology of the building complex, including four outdoor soccer fields and a hall with an artificial turf field, are reminiscent of the headquarters of the large IT companies in Silicon Valley. What is particularly striking are the offices that are not separated from each other, which are intended to promote networking between the individual departments.
Even Hansi Flick doesn’t have a permanent office. The national coach works in the coach’s lounge, from where all the seats – where the national teams will regularly prepare for their home games in the future – can be viewed. The sports areas (pitches, changing rooms, fitness rooms, regeneration facilities, technology laboratory) were recently inaugurated by the women’s national team during their preparation for the forthcoming European Championship finals (July 6th to 31st).
Hotel room despite the athletes’ house
The 33-room athletes’ house also belongs to the campus. Since the entourage of the men’s national team, the women’s selection and the U21s is too large for the hotel area, these teams will have to stay in the hotel in the future and be taken to the campus by bus.
Reason for the restriction: The budget could not be exceeded. In the almost three years since the groundbreaking ceremony in September 2019, it was not easy to stick to this goal anyway. The corona pandemic and the Ukraine war increased costs and delayed construction.