The other day Alfons Hörmann Tacheles spoke.

That is now even easier for him, six and a half weeks before his resignation as President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) on December 4th in Weimar.

If you believe the representation of the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, then the outgoing boss has drawn politicians and ministerial officials to the inability to recognize the importance of sport in the pandemic for people's health.

Anno Hecker

Responsible editor for sports.

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Hörmann attested that school sports and swimming were in a "shocking state", he complained about the bureaucracy that slows down the sport, gave the Chancellor a swipe, sees the "bright red alert" in top-class sport and predicted the comparatively poor performance of the summer games in Tokyo for the winter edition A major crash of the Olympic team in China in just over three months.

With a view to the sports reform, he took the officials of the Federal Ministry of the Interior into the mangle: "In ten years German sport will be successful where the state does not interfere and fail where officials have a hand in it."

Damage limitation in their own right

Even if Hörmann didn't say all of this literally: Many of the colleagues involved in sports policy in professional associations for German sports and in the state sports federations would have to more or less agree with this pithy analysis. In one case, however, a top official combined his approval with the analogous comment as to whether someone had described a good part of his current account at the same time. Because if the list corresponds to the described state of German sport from the breadth to the top after eight years of DOSB leadership under the current president, then at least one person would be politically responsible for it: Hörmann.

It is understandable that the 61-year-old Allgäu is on his farewell tour through the republic to limit damage on his own behalf. But that only serves to bring the past to an end. Associations and groups have long been fighting behind the scenes more or less constructively, at least passionately, sometimes desperately for the future of German sport. As can be heard, several candidates are said to have expressed their interest in presenting their expertise to the search committee under the direction of former Federal President Christian Wulff and wanting to take over Hörmann's legacy.

What is in store for those who are to be awarded the contract on December 4th in Weimar, where poets and thinkers, and later, unfortunately, also executioners, worked? First, a huge repair program. The national and international political capacity of the DOSB has suffered greatly. The relationship with officials in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, after all the most important broker of taxpayers' money for top-class sport, is shattered. The DOSB was also heavily criticized from the last sports committee of the Bundestag. The President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, revealed an enormous distance to the DOSB leadership, rarely enough, in an open letter.

Anyone who needs taxpayers money, who needs political support for their major programs and who wants to counter the threat of the state's autonomy in sport, Hörmann's scenario, has to be able to unite and demonstrate diplomatic skills. Or should sport privatize and remove the Olympic Games from its desired program? There is not even an internal opinion on the Olympics.

The tasks are as daunting as they are difficult. In the pandemic, the powerlessness of the DOSB in the fight for the importance of club sport for the health of children and senior citizens has become all too clear. At a hearing of the health committee, umpteen associations were invited, the DOSB not. A failure at the parliamentary level. But disregard also indicates weakness. In sports politics, the DOSB is sometimes driven by Athleten Deutschland, the association of critical and self-confident athletes. In educational policy, organized sport has for decades failed to convey the importance of school sport for the development of children in such a way that it plays an appropriate role. How about a change with professionally trained sports teachers?

The growing demand of society to combine sport with climate protection is rolling towards the DOSB.

At the same time, he must accelerate and reduce the bureaucracy of the top-level sports reform that has got stuck here and there.

There is also the proposal to found a competitive sports company and to come to an agreement with the BMI employees after years of estrangement that deep interventions in the operational business of sports are no longer necessary, and even counterproductive.

The list goes on.

It has become clear that Hörmann's exchange will not be enough.

German sport has to agree on a common program and find a strong new team for its top.

That will be the hardest part.