Age limit at the DFB: The enemy Manuel Graefe

As an organization, the DFB is the role model we deserve in our capitalist society.

In the corridors of Frankfurt, as a functionary, you apparently forget whose interests you have to represent (friendly reminder: not your own).

This was particularly evident in a small department: the Referees Committee.

In the 2010s, former director Herbert Fandel and former DFL referee advisor Hellmut Krug introduced a system of obedience and favoritism in which “too often it was about taste and not about performance,” as referee Manuel Gräfe said.

As one of the best Bundesliga referees, he had to retire in the summer of 2021 because of the age limit – and sued the DFB for age discrimination.

Now the new DFB referee boss Lutz Michael Fröhlich said that this is "actually not a limit, but rather an orientation value".

Why wasn't that the case in the summer of 2021?

Why did Gräfe, who uncovered grievances, have to go?

Because in the DFB enlightenment was not rewarded but punished.