“It works.” These are two words from Donata Hopfen, with which she is quoted in the eternal network.

That was in the spring when neither the Hamburg-born manager nor the men of the German Football League (DFL) knew who would succeed Christian Seifert at the head of the most important body in German professional football.

Anno Hecker

Responsible editor for sports.

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Back then, Ms. Hopfen was pleased to say in a guest article for “Business Insider” that Germany could “go digital” if only it wanted to.

Since last Friday it has been clear that the male domain can also play football if it wants to.

In any case, the DFL supervisory board - consisting of six men - decided to appoint Ms. Hopfen as managing director and spokeswoman for the presidium on January 1, 2022.

For the first time, a woman is supposed to direct the fortunes of the soccer business.

To stay with the hop diction: it works.

Is she the right one?

Saturday's press release does not mention this phenomenon with a single letter.

As if the DFL wanted to document a matter of course: Here, no decision was made for a woman, but for the most capable person after a comprehensive selection process that lasted months up to the personal lecture in the last round for two, last Friday.

The result of the men's association consultation: "Donata Hopfen is the right personality for one of the most important positions in German football", as the DFL quotes the chairman of the supervisory board Peter Peters: "In a time of change, she has all the qualities and great assertiveness, in order to lead the DFL into a continued (sic) successful future in the interests of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs. "

Is she the right one?

Is she.

This is what Katja Kraus, once a goalkeeper in the Bundesliga and first woman on the board of a first division club (HSV) says: “She is competent and independent.

I'm excited like crazy.

Because this choice also has a huge symbolic power.

It could trigger a change of direction.

It's so important right now to get things done from another.

To look at perspective. "

The future soccer boss was not asked about her point of view on Sunday and will probably hold back until she takes office.

She should and wants to get to know the employees and committees before the course becomes known.

And yet, from the description of tasks indicated by Peters and the previous fields of work, one can see where the journey could lead.

Donata Hopfen, born in 1976, is considered a digital expert.

Hops should continue the DFL success story

After studying European business administration in Madrid and Reutlingen, she worked as a consultant for the Accenture agency before she rose to the position of managing director of BILD digital for over 14 years at Springer-Verlang.

After a short interlude at Verimi, she moved to Boston Consulting Digital Ventures in Berlin, a subsidiary of the Boston Consulting Group, in 2019.

Your task: develop digital business models.

Until she takes office in Frankfurt, Ms. Hopfen will remain Managing Director and partner at this subsidiary of the Boston Consulting Group.

Peters speaks of “extensive experience in the areas of media and digitization” with a view to the vita.

What does that mean? Ms. Hopfen is to continue the success story of the DFL under Seifert. He had driven the media income from once 400 million euros to more than a billion in the amount. In the meantime, the scope for expansion in the field of media rights has shrunk enormously, but the gap to other leagues has hardly narrowed. There is still scope in the digital market. In this respect, the choice of an expert appears to be a logical answer to a challenge that has grown in the pandemic, primarily because of the limited number of viewers.

Donata Hopfen probably also convinced the supervisory board with her view of the side effect of the pandemic: "This new openness to digitization and the courage to innovate must now be used by politics, society and companies and jointly build on it", wrote Hopfen in her guest article "(. ..) "The prerequisite for this new narrative is the development of a comprehensive future plan for a digital Germany." So also for digital Bundesliga exploitation. At the same time, the new boss would have to master domestic and foreign policy conflicts: the recurring question of the "fair" distribution of income among the German clubs, the next expected attempt at a super league, which in turn led to the discussion about the 50 + 1- Will enliven the problem.

And then the relationship with the German Football Association (DFB) would have to be cemented, whose amateur representatives like to paint the DFL boss Christian Seifert on the wall of horror as the strategist behind a hostile takeover. At this point, an innovative media manager for the new business fields is less required than a clever tactician with a feel for the world of volunteers, in which “agile” and “hard-working” can encounter granite.

If you will, Donata Hopfen said something to the DFB even before taking office, when she described Germany from the perspective of an entrepreneur before the pandemic: "Because instead of radically questioning the existing and breaking new ground, the success of the old days makes German companies (...) sedate and success in the future impossible. ”It will be exciting to see whether a woman without a stable smell and thus without internal football dependencies at the top of the DFL can move the DFB, win a professional leadership. The choice of Donata hops alone has an impact. Even if it is just the impression that the DFB is at most preaching the advancement of women.