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DOSB President Alfons Hörmann has been criticized and under considerable pressure for his allegedly inadequate leadership style. While the management bodies of the German Olympic Sports Confederation have unanimously expressed their trust in the 60-year-old sports official and business manager, there is the first demand for his resignation and doubts about a serious explanation. In an anonymous letter allegedly written by employees, Hörmann is accused of having created a “culture of fear” in the DOSB headquarters in Frankfurt am Main.

"Mr. Hörmann should resign immediately and clear the way for a new election," said Stefan Klett, President of the State Sports Association of North Rhine-Westphalia, at "sportschau.de".

"The non-profit German sport needs trust, transparency and humanity in the pandemic time and a president who actively listens to his member organizations and the grassroots instead of ignoring them," he added.

"After the disastrous repeated Olympic defeat, the cut tablecloth with the IOC, the dilettantism in dealing with the impact on the vaccination protection law, this process brings the barrel to overflow," said Klett, whose regional association is the largest in Germany with five million members.

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Source: SID

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Hörmann's lack of respect for the employees harms the popular sports base in the clubs and the important social tasks of the DOSB.

His Hamburger Sportbund colleague Jürgen Mantell did not dare to venture that far.

“The process as such is suspicious.

I cannot confirm the allegations myself, ”he said.

"Whenever I met Alfons Hörmann, the conversations were respectful."

The board of directors and the presidium are behind Hörmann

The board of directors and presidium of the DOSB backed their boss in separate statements on Friday.

The board of directors, headed by Veronika Rücker, rejected the criticism of Hörmann listed in the anonymous letter "in all clarity".

"From our perspective, we cannot see any behavior that - as assumed in the open letter - 'lacks any form of respect and decency'." The DOSB Presidium also stood behind Hörmann and told him "the unreserved trust and our fullest Support ”.

At the same time, the allegations will be examined in an intensive exchange with the employees.

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The chairwoman of the sports committee of the Bundestag has doubts about an open clarification of the allegations.

"The seemingly pathetic expressions of solidarity by the Presidium and Board of Directors, which in the end are in stark contrast to the public cries for help from parts of the workforce, come as no surprise to me," said Dagmar Freitag (SPD).

The chosen formulations raised concerns that “an open-ended discussion of the allegations will not take place”.

"Pathetic expressions of solidarity": SPD politician Dagmar Freitag does not spare criticism

Source: dpa / Fabian Strauch

The matter does not necessarily have to be out of the world, she emphasized.

“After all, there is at least one open call for the influential president of the LSB NRW to resign, to be taken seriously,” Friday said.

“And of course the question arises as to whether there will be further critical voices, for example from the ranks of the central associations organized in the DOSB.

Or just silence. "

Before Hörmann, who has been president of the umbrella organization since 2013, rehearsed the uprising in vain in December 2018, a number of professional associations were re-elected.

At that time, too, he was accused of not maintaining an adequate tone of communication with his fellow officials, especially in the course of the struggle for the competitive sports reform.

Hörmann was clearly defeated three years ago: Martin Engelhardt, Germany's top triathlete

Source: dpa / Guido Kirchner

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Martin Engelhardt, President of the German Triathlon Union, sees himself confirmed by the criticism of the DOSB President expressed in the anonymous open letter.

"The letter doesn't surprise me," he said.

“You have to take the criticism seriously.” In 2018, Engelhardt was clearly inferior to Hörmann in the election for the presidency of the German Olympic Sports Confederation with 61 to 383 votes.

He could understand that “the people as dependent employees” wrote the letter anonymously because they feared “negative consequences”.

"Then the allegations have to be credibly cleared up." The events that are supposed to have happened there "have been uttered so many times by the appropriate people".

The German rowing president Siegfried Kaidel also regards it as very worrying that Hörmann is again being criticized.

“The outcry from the DOSB workforce has to be taken very seriously and things have to be cleared up as quickly as possible.

At that time there were already tips that nobody took seriously, "said the 70-year-old, who in 2018 was also the spokesman for the top sports associations.

His successor in this function, Ingo Weiss, said: “It is clear that a large sports family sometimes smokes.

The allegations must be checked, however, whether there is anything in it.

Engelhardt, on the other hand, considers an examination of the Hörmann cause by the ethics committee to be pointless.

“I have little hope.” But the doctor also said: “Sooner or later, what has to come will come.

The arguments are on the table, the facts are on the table. "

At the head of the German Olympic Sports Confederation since 2013: Functionary and entrepreneur Alfons Hörmann

Source: Bongarts / Getty Images / Alex Grimm

As early as on Saturday, the top officials of the state sports federations should be expected to clarify what is going on in the DOSB House at the regular video conference.

Likewise, the anonymous letter and the allegations against Hörmann should be at the top of the agenda at the DOSB presidium meeting.