In the power struggle of German sport and in the dispute over new elections or a question of confidence, Alfons Hörmann and his presidium are facing a further investigation by the ethics committee of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).

This was announced by Jonathan Koch, athlete representative in the presidium, on Saturday in the conference of the leading associations, when Hörmann accused him of his position on the declaration of honor for Hörmann under external influence and also under pressure from the chairman of the sports committee in the German Bundestag, the SPD member Dagmar Friday to have changed.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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    On Sunday, Koch confirmed to the FAZ that he would submit a report to the commission headed by the former Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière: "This involves the process of incorrectly drawing the statement by name on May 7, 2021." What is meant is the declaration of honor , in which the members of the Presidium, on the day after anonymous accusations from the DOSB staff about the management style and manners of Hörmann (“culture of fear”), expressed “unlimited trust and full support”.

    It was only after Koch continued to protest that the DOSB removed his name from the declaration.

    Regain trust

    Uschi Schmitz, vice president of competitive sports, who was named as a witness at the meeting on Saturday, replied yes to the FAZ's question as to whether Koch had told her in connection with the declaration that he had been put under pressure.

    He didn't say by whom.

    Ms. Schmitz surprised by announcing that de Maizière had long since requested and received a description of the process from the Presidium.

    Apparently he is already investigating the process and will now receive a representation from Koch.

    From the first study, which looked at Hörmann's management style and manners and their consequences, de Maizière derived the recommendation to use the general assembly in December for the election of new President and Presidium;

    this is the only way to create trust.

    Will the decision be made in late summer?

    As the subject of the investigation and as recipients of the ethics committee's recommendation in accordance with the statutes, Hörmann and the Presidium themselves decide what consequences the report has for them. You are expected to hold an extraordinary general meeting in September next week, after the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The representatives of the 66 central associations agreed - not with a single resolution, but with an almost unanimous vote.

    If a majority votes for new elections three months later in September, says Ingo Weiss, basketball president and spokesman for the conference, this is a signal of mistrust;

    In this case, Hörmann would have to resign.

    It is about avoiding dirty laundry being washed in December.

    Therefore, the discussion should be channeled and the association should be brought into calm waters.

    In the event of Hörmann's resignation, Weiss brought up the Vice President Finance, Kaweh Niroomand, in order to avoid an emergency board.

    Many associations are convinced that the current crisis should not drag on until the end of the year.

    Hörmann interprets the report published by de Maizière on June 7th as largely exonerating.

    State associations want new elections

    In contrast, the sixteen state sports federations are calling for new elections in December, one year before the regular end of Hörmann's second term of office. They rejected the proposal to just hold a “vote of confidence” in the context of an extraordinary general meeting, according to a statement that they adopted on Saturday at their conference in Kassel. The LSB unanimously request the DOSB Presidium to fully implement the ethics committee's recommendation. The LSB are of the opinion that the period up to December 2021 is necessary in order to be able to properly discuss the content-related expectations of the LSB and structural questions with the DOSB Presidium.

    The state sports federations are thus in line with the athlete representatives.

    Their organization “Athleten Deutschland” demanded that the recommendations of the ethics committee be implemented “in order not to jeopardize the ethics committee's credibility and not to risk a loss of trust in this merely recommending institution”.

    De Maizière called for changes in the DOSB on Deutschlandfunk: “It's about a process of stopping talking badly about others - whoever and whatever, and a lot of people have to touch their own nose,” he said and warned the impression that the replacement of Hörmann alone will ensure relaxation: "To believe that one person around the issue would then be solved, fails to understand the depth of the problem."

    Dagmar Freitag accused Hörmann and his presidium of "demonstratively disregarding the ethics committee's vote". The chairman of the sports committee told the sports information service that the DOSB president was not even thinking of “seriously questioning one's own behavior”. Behind the intention of a vote of confidence in September is "ice cold calculation".