DFB President Bernd Neuendorf (l.) with Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. Neuendordf is also an SPD member. (IMAGO / Sven Simon / IMAGO / Frank Hoermann / SVEN SIMON)
Is there a “social democratic hegemony in organized German sport”, as the online portal “Übermedien” recently suspected? “The SPD is trying to make practically everything follow a common line. That’s the nature of a party,” thinks Thomas Kistner, sports journalist at the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He says: There is no strategy behind it – but the SPD would now use this constellation to its advantage. “That’s always bad – no matter what color a party is, if everything is so uniform, keyword: a unified sports party conference.”
At the center of his criticism: the DFB. The conservative publisher and publicist Wolfram Weimer has also just accused DFB President Bernd Neuendorf of “left-wing activist association management” in the debate magazine “The European”. On the one hand, with a view to the appointment of Andreas Rettig, who is considered politically left-wing, as the new sports director. And on the other hand, with a view to the World Cup in Qatar: “I believe that it must be possible to stand up for openness and diversity. And to do so openly.”
Kistner criticizes Faeser’s one-love bandage
Interior and Sports Minister Nancy Faeser sat next to FIFA boss Gianni Infantino with a One Love bandage on her arm at the game against Japan. “If we then see that the whole thing is crashing against the wall because of the sheer polarization of an issue,” says sports policy expert Kistner, criticizing this action, “that people forget about playing football and put it at the bottom somewhere, then that is very bad. Then a political line has been pushed through here, which is about showing your attitude and taking a stance.”
Like Wolfram Weimer, he suspects that the communications agency BrinkertLück is behind it. She advises both the DFB and the SPD and has already supervised their successful federal election campaign. The agency says it had nothing to do with the action.
Rather, emphasizes SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, there was a broad social outcry about the conditions in Qatar at the time. “And there was a great need for the Federal Minister of the Interior to position herself there as a representative of our country. I think you can only construct the fact that a year later this is being interpreted as activism for you if you really want to patch things up for the SPD.”
DFB President Neuendorf said at the time that the action with Faeser armband had not been agreed upon. Faeser replied that she got the armband from the DFB. Today, however, when asked by Deutschlandfunk, her ministry speaks of Faeser’s personal decision. When asked, the DFB also stated that it was not involved in the campaign.
Kühnert: “Conspiracy theory features”
“Well, I can’t describe some things other than that they really have conspiracy theory traits,” says Kühnert, who is also responsible for sport on the SPD party executive committee. There is also criticism of the fact that so many prominent positions in sports politics and the He cannot understand whether associations are staffed by SPD people. The chairmen of the sports associations were elected democratically in internal votes – and not by the SPD party executive or the Federal Chancellery. If they are social democrats like Bernd Neuendorf at the DFB, they do not lay the foundation of their values straight away. “But as a rule that doesn’t contradict the lines of their associations. That’s the good old confusion that we’re encountering again now. That associations have to be non-partisan. But non-partisanship doesn’t mean being apolitical .”
In general, the DFB also reports, positions are not filled according to the party register. Bernd Neuendorf is the first ever DFB president from the SPD; before him there were often men with CDU party membership, including Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder and Reinhard Grindel.
Kühnert: The DFB President’s attitude does not depend on party membership
Kevin Kühnert believes that the DFB’s stance should not depend on the president’s party membership anyway: “Football should and must represent a stance. The DFB has also done this in its statutes and in its decisions for many years. He stands up against racism, against anti-Semitism and against exclusion. To do that is to position yourself politically. This is not a red-green agenda, but rather a broad consensus in the middle of our democratic majority society.”
“Of course there are party-political differences in sport. But they are nowhere near as pronounced as they are in other policy areas.” Jürgen Mittag is a professor of sports policy at the Cologne Sports University. Mittag is also close to the SPD, but takes a critical look at the party and its sports policy. “What we experience much more often in sports policy is that it is much more common to ask what positions sport as a whole takes in relation to other areas.”
Mittag goes on to say: In sport there are a lot of personal networks and often opportunities to exchange ideas. Verena Bentele confirmed this in an interview with Deutschlandfunk: “Anyone of us who has political contacts naturally uses them to bring sport into politics. But we really do that with everyone who is in responsible positions.”
DOSB leader is also a member of the SPD
Bentele, multiple Paralympic champion, is DOSB Vice President and President of the social association VdK. Like DOSB boss Thomas Weikert, she is also an SPD member. The umbrella organization is currently trying to pave the way for a German Olympic bid. “And the fact that we are now trying this again is a great opportunity for us as a newly elected executive committee to give something back to German sport and to solidify structures for German sport through the games.”
“In my opinion, an attempt is now being made to put together an Olympic application that is, as always, completely hopeless,” criticizes SZ journalist Kistner, who is particularly bothered by the fact that a German application for the Olympics has been made by the SPD-led sports ministry Games 2036 was initiated, which is now being carried out with the help of the DOSB, which is also led by the SPD: “With the usual thoughts, of course: that we are once again trying to bring about unity in a society that is clearly already divided. So these are political lines that are on the field of sport. And that’s not good.”
But people currently have completely different concerns than beautiful community projects like the Olympic Games. „For me, the most important thing is that we all have to position ourselves, for example how do we deal with conflicts in the world, for example when athletes come from countries that are currently in the middle of a military conflict. These are issues that we have to deal with ethically and human rights,” defends DOSB Vice President Bentele. “And that has nothing to do with which party you belong to, but rather how you position yourself here as a German sport. How much politics is in sport? How much sport is in sport? Those are the exciting questions right now.”
2023-11-05 01:57:35
#social #democratization #sport
