There must be items on the agenda.

In this way, complex sport-political events are given a structure.

For example the general assembly of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) this Saturday in Weimar.

On Friday they were still busy working on the list.

The organizers are happy that the election event can take place in the fourth wave of pandemics.

Anno Hecker

Responsible editor for sports.

  • Follow I follow

However, shortcuts are necessary to get to the “new beginning”.

What doesn’t have to be that lengthened is thrown out.

Top 7, for example, otherwise a central core: the President's speech.

Of course, this point in the program was not simply deleted.

The outgoing head of the DOSB is considered to be the master of the house until a new leadership is elected.

But Alfons Hörmann will not say goodbye personally on Saturday, according to information from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

He is not coming.

Vice-President Kaweh Niroomand represents the incumbent Presidium in Weimar.

Some delegates may regret Hörmann's absence.

Others seem relieved.

The absence of the boss reinforces the impression that he is now finally the past and that the future of the DOSB, coping with the enormous tasks, is the most important thing on this election day anyway.

But it will not be quite like this.

Even if Hörmann does not take the floor in the city of great humanists, his era accompanies the new leadership, willy-nilly.

That also has to do with the agenda.

Will the old presidium be discharged?

Actually, the vote on the business break was not on the agenda and should be postponed to 2022. Because there is a great interest of associations in having an unresolved chapter of the Hörmann era cleared up.

No honorary presidency

Was the DOSB money used appropriately when the president decided to bring injunctions in all directions with the help of an aggressive law firm? Weeks ago there was serious talk about an honorary presidency for Hörmann among the sports designers. Until Karin Fehres, who had been a member of the DOSB board for many years, revealed in a letter how Hörmann and lawyers in particular tried to insinuate that she was the author of an anonymous letter from May.

It spoke of a “culture of fear” among DOSB staff. Mrs. Fehres should confess. Otherwise, the law firm threatened, it could face criminal and civil consequences. Karin Fehres rejected the accusation indignantly and protested against the procedure. She didn't have to wait long for support from the DOSB. Hörmann's honorary presidency also vanished into thin air. And with him his power structure. The chairwoman of the board, Veronica Rücker, involved in the attack on Fehres, announced her withdrawal for the new year. She will not appear in Weimar either.

Presumably, the delegates missed a brilliant and emotional defense speech, as Hörmann gave in the autumn, for example at the Badischer Sportbund Süd, according to ear witnesses. A reporter well versed in sports politics promptly wrote of a nasty intrigue game with Hörmann as the victim. There is no record of the Suada. But the delegates still have the annual report of the executive committee to the member associations. This outlines the development after the anonymous letter, the appeal to the ethics committee of the DOSB and, following the recommendation of this committee, the decision of Hörmann not to stand in new elections in the sense of a vote of confidence.

That is why the lawyer Thomas Weikert, he is the favorite, and Claudia Bokel, the President of the German Fencing Association, are up for election on Saturday. Both argue factually. Hörmann is more inclined to exaggerate. The annual report says about the mood in the management circle: "The cooperation between the Presidium and the Board of Directors was always characterized by a high level of trust and mutual appreciation, especially in this difficult time for the DOSB ..."

High level of trust, mutual respect?

This week, the FAZ published answers from members of the Presidium to questions from the state sports federations with a completely different impression.

The athletes representative Jonathan Koch felt himself under pressure in the presidium and sometimes cut off from the flow of information.

He offered evidence of this.

His colleagues Gudrun Doll-Tepper and Petra Tzschoppe wrote of "blatant violations, in particular of the principles of transparency and participation in the presidium and board".

Both reported these "violations" to the ethics committee.

Whether the annual report is on the agenda or not: The DOSB won't get rid of Hörmann's spirit anytime soon.