Sports director Christian Keller from the Bundesliga club 1. FC Cologne has suggested to the German Football Association (DFB) that it waive penalties for the game interruptions as part of the DFL investor protests.
“If the DFB sports judiciary were far-sighted, they would stop the potential punishment requests after the DFL decision and let things calm down,” said the 47-year-old to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”.
According to Keller, in the past few weeks until a possible investor entry into the German Football League collapsed, it was an “exceptional situation for the entire German professional football”, “which is not covered by the sentencing guidelines”.
Criticism of communication: “Certainly needs improvement”
The league association’s communication throughout the entire process, which was accompanied by massive protests in the fan curves for weeks, was “certainly in need of improvement,” noted Keller: “But it is not the DFL as an institution, but the supporting clubs at the respective location that have their basis for approval “We should have prepared better. We should have explained in more detail why we think the desired entry into private equity is right.”