Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – The long-standing presiding judge of the DFB sports court, Hans E. Lorenz, criticized communication at the German Football Association shortly before the end of his term of office.
“That’s something I’ve missed out on at the DFB in recent years. Of course, that’s also related to Corona, but not only,” said the 71-year-old of the German Press Agency. “Communication within the association has suffered significantly, also because the top management had a lot to do with itself. It urgently needs to be intensified in the next legislative period – in all directions.”
Because he has reached the age limit, Lorenz’s term in the DFB Bundestag in Bonn ends. A new president will also be elected there for the scandalous association. His previous deputy, Stephan Oberholz from Leipzig, is running as Lorenz’s successor. Lorenz has headed the sports court since 2007 and is also a member of UEFA’s Disciplinary Committee.
Bundesliga fairest league
In more than 2000 – mostly written – proceedings, he and his committee ruled on penalties for clubs, coaches and players, on fan offenses and also spectacular disputes such as the so-called space attack in the 2012 relegation game between Fortuna Düsseldorf and Hertha BSC or the phantom goal by Leverkusen’s Stefan Kießling.
The lawyer from Wöllstein in Rhenish Hesse, before retiring he was the presiding judge of the large criminal chamber at the Mainz district court, is also a member of the board of directors at the DFB until the Bundestag. Here, too, he misses better communication and more than the two meetings a year. “If they all come in the door now, I would say at most two-thirds: I’ve seen them before. And half of the names would come to mind spontaneously,” said Lorenz.
The chairman of the sports court sees a positive development in the behavior of the protagonists in professional football. The Bundesliga is “by far the fairest of the big leagues”. The trend with declining red and yellow-red cards is clear. “The video assistant protects us from work: there are no more undetected assaults behind the referees’ backs,” explained Lorenz.