Rudi Völler will succeed Oliver Bierhoff as sports director of the German Football Association (DFB): There was no confirmation of this claim on Tuesday in Offenbach at the New Year's reception of the German Football League (DFL).

But so many advance praise for the former national striker, national coach and manager of Bayer Leverkusen that the German football leadership would be embarrassed if it didn't come to that.

Anno Hecker

Responsible editor for sports.

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A receipt?

"Rudi has the advantage that the vast majority of people have a positive attitude towards him," said Hans-Joachim Watzke, spokesman for the DFL supervisory board: "He still has a great deal of knowledge about it.

That in combination is a good story.” Watzke may have said that too, because Völler received the honorary award from the DFL.

But the managing director of Borussia Dortmund is a member of the DFB task force, which wants to quickly enforce its recommendation.

The men's European Championship is coming up in this country next year.

Lucky for the Germans to be able to correct things quickly after the "disaster" (Völler) in Qatar.

And so Watzke's words seemed like a message from the task force: the man from the middle of football should fix it for the time being.

Völler, when specifically asked, kept a low profile.

There is another meeting on Thursday, then the DFB Presidium meets.

"Let's see," called the Hessian to the audience.

DFB President Bernd Neuendorf, who had previously used a gap at the DFL table for an intensive shakehand with Völler, also applauded.

The return to a solidarity that Watzke demands from the associations for 2023 cannot yet be read from this scene.

There will be other tests like the negotiations of the basic contract between DFL and DFB.

Watzke, however, sounded the alarm.

Despite all the responsibility for socio-political issues, party politics should take a back seat.

The CDU man did not say whether he meant the badly unsuccessful bandage policy of the DFB parallel to the appearance of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) in Qatar.

But that the ranks have to be closed: "There is only one German football." And that, said an influential football manager of the FAZ, "Rudi should get rolling again".

There are only formalities to be clarified.