Dispute between DOSB and federal government: How does Germany win more medals?

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Gold for Germany: Malaika Mihambo's triumph in the long jump at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo was more the exception than the rule

Photo: ALEKSANDRA SZMIGIEL / REUTERS

Unfair, bureaucratic and not goal-oriented – German top-level sports funding has been criticized for years.

Countries such as Great Britain, Australia and Norway are considered to be significantly more successful in international comparison.

In its coalition agreement, the traffic light therefore announced that it would restructure the funding and set up a sports agency with extensive powers.

In recent months, administrative staff and sports officials have developed a new concept in several working groups.

Now the project should be given a legal framework.

As SPIEGEL learned from government circles, a draft bill for a sports funding law is to be submitted to the federal cabinet in the first half of the year.

But the paper is already being heavily criticized before it has even been published.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) went on a direct confrontation course: The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) was endangering the goals of the competitive sports reform through the law.

"In an initial analysis of the draft, we are sobered to see that with this draft law, after more than two years of intensive joint work on a reform of competitive sport and the promotion of top-class sport, the BMI is questioning the previously trusting cooperation with organized sport," he said.

The aim of the draft is to make funding more “potential and success-oriented,” it says.

The decline in medals at major events such as the Olympic Games or World Championships should be stopped and bureaucracy reduced by bundling award decisions.

The sport insists on autonomy when distributing money

It's about a lot of money and influence.

The federal government recently increased the funding for top-class sport to 300 million euros, but this was not reflected in more medals at the Olympic Games or international championships.

So far, the money has been distributed to the sports associations via the DOSB, based on a complicated evaluation process in which the athletes' potential and prospects of success are assessed.

Sport continues to insist on its autonomy and does not want to be talked into the allocation of money by administration and politics.

The Federal Audit Office, on the other hand, demands that the distribution of tax money be monitored more closely.

The Bundestag has also recently called for participation in the agency's committees.

The result is a complicated foundation structure that consists of three bodies: foundation board, board of directors and sports advisory board.

Only the first two have decision-making power.

The board of trustees consists of nine federal members, including five members of the German Bundestag, six members of the DOSB and three members of the federal states.

The DOSB has the majority of nine members on the Sports Advisory Board.

However, this committee only has an advisory function.

Another point of criticism: It was not defined before the start of the reform process which goals the Federal Republic was pursuing in promoting elite sports.

It remains to be seen whether – as before – all Olympic sports will be supported or only those where Germany has a particularly high chance of success.

Is there a risk of even more bureaucracy?

DOSB President Thomas Weikert called the plan “unacceptable.”

The draft contains clear implementation weaknesses in the areas of “independence of the agency”, “cooperation between politics and sport on an equal footing” and reduction in bureaucracy.

There are fears that the “excessive administrative processes” will continue.

"Instead of eliminating the existing rigidities and obstacles to the success of athletes with a more flexible and less bureaucratic promotion and control of top-class sport, as agreed, the status quo is being institutionalized by the new agency," said Weikert.

The draft provides funding for athletes, sports science, base systems, construction work, major events and international relations.

The Potas potential analysis system developed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and DOSB in 2016 is to be integrated into the agency, as SPIEGEL learned.

However, in a slimmed down form.

In addition to clear performance-related goals, such as a place in the top five in the medal count at the Summer Olympics and a place in the top three at the Winter Games, the draft also formulates social-related goals.

These include “preventing and combating political extremism, anti-Semitism and other forms of group-related misanthropy”, “equality between women and men and strengthening diversity” and integration.

“The aim of state funding is a sport that is free of doping, manipulation, corruption and violence,” it says.

German athletes have recently achieved less and less success in major international competitions.

The Germans came home from the Olympic Games in Tokyo with their worst result since reunification.

They also performed historically poorly at the World Athletics Championships in the USA; apart from the long jump title for Malaika Mihambo, they only managed a bronze medal.