“Didn’t exist in my time” – Ex-DFB President sharply criticizes Watzke
Reinhard Grindel was DFB President from 2016 to 2019
Quelle: pa/dpa/Boris Roessler
The basic contract between the DFB and DFL is expiring and the financial plans of both parties differ widely. DFL boss Watzke had recently warned against excessive demands from the association. There is now sharp criticism of an ex-DFB president.
Dhe former DFB President Reinhard Grindel is critical of Hans-Joachim Watzke’s warning to the German Football Association about the basic contract. “I didn’t understand this sharpness,” said Grindel about the interview with the DFL supervisory board chief. “If German football is still world class in one respect, it’s our club landscape at the grassroots level. The stars in the Bundesliga do not start at Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, but in one of our 24,000 clubs.”
In an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, Watzke had warned against excessive financial demands in view of the expiring basic contract between the DFB and the German Football League. “I mean it very seriously: the DFB demands exorbitantly more. Despite all the problems, we are willing to pay significantly more. But we are very far apart,” he said. If negotiations fail, there is even a risk of going to arbitration.
The DFL is sawing off “the branch it is sitting on – and that’s why strengthening the state associations through greater support from the DFL is also in the interest of professional football,” said Grindel. “That’s why I didn’t understand the sharpness of Mr. Watzke’s arguments. This is unprecedented and did not exist in my time.”
The basic contract regulates the annual cash flows between DFB and DFL. The league participates, among other things, in the income from the marketing of the national team and in the surpluses of the DFB from world and European championships. Among other things, the DFB is involved in the income from media rights and ticket sales of the league. In the 2021 financial report, the association reported income from the basic contract in the amount of 26 million euros, the expenditure was 20 million euros.
Watzke will be elected to the Uefa Executive Committee on Wednesday
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and Watzke, also Managing Director of Borussia Dortmund, will take part in the Congress of the European Football Union Uefa in Lisbon on Wednesday. Neuendorf is elected to the decision-making body of the world association Fifa, Watzke to the Executive Committee of Uefa.
“Mr Watzke will now move into the Uefa Executive Committee, a position that could also be occupied by a DFB representative, especially against the background of the EM 2024 in Germany,” said Grindel, emphasizing that the European clubs already have two through the ECA association had places in Exko. Watzke had announced that he would give up his seat on the ECA board in an election to Uefa.