Ex-politician named new president of the German Football Association
Former politician Bernd Neuendorf was elected as the new president of the German Football Association today, replacing Fritz Keeler who was forced to resign in May 2021 after comparing his deputy to a notorious Nazi-era judge.
It is up to Neuendorf, 60, a former spokesman for the German Social Democratic Party and since 2012 for five years as Minister of State in North Rhine-Westphalia, to polish the image of Germany's largest sports organization, which includes more than 7 million licensees to practice soccer. foot.
"We have to keep the union together," the former politician said, adding, "Anyone who does not go along with the cultural change will make me a strong opponent."
Neuendorf, who started his career as a journalist before switching to politics in 2003, has called for unity within the German Football Association, which has been mired in a series of scandals in recent years.
His predecessor Fritz Keeler resigned in 2021 after comparing his deputy to a notorious Nazi-era judge.
Prior to him, Reinhard Grindel was forced to step down as president of the FA in 2019 after three controversial years, punctuated by German international Mesut Ozil's condemnation of Grindel's institutionalized racist culture when the international midfielder decided to retire from international football in 2018.
Grindel was fired the following year for accepting a luxury watch from a Ukrainian oligarch, and his successor, Wolfgang Niersbach, also resigned in 2015 amid allegations that the German Football Association used illegal funding sources in 2000 to buy the right to host the 2006 World Cup.
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