New era for DFB with new leader, more women

Following years of turmoil and a fair few failed new starts, the German football association (DFB) is hoping for a less bumpy ride under the stewardship of new president, Bernd Neuendorf.

After winning Friday's election in Bonn with 193 of 250 votes, the 60-year-old spoke of time for a "cultural shift and renewal" and for football "to embrace its societal and political responsibilities again."

A former journalist, Rhineland civil servant and president of the local Mittelrhein FA in western Germany, Neuendorf has a long to-do list, including repairing an image tarnished by allegations of corruption, improving the DFB's connection to the amateur game and increasing diversity in leading positions.

The need for more actions to accompany all the talk around positive change is great though, particularly around women and diversity. On Friday, the DFB elected three new women to its board, which now has four in total with Donata Hopfen, the new managing director of the German Football League Association (DFL), retaining her position.

Celia Sasic, a former Germany forward, filled the new role of vice president for diversity and equality. Sabine Mammitzsch replaced the legendary Hannelore Ratzeburg as the vice president for women's and girls' football. Dr. Silke Sinning, a former player and coach who has been involved in governing the women's game in southern Germany, claimed a surprise victory over interim president Rainer Koch.

The new appointments embody a significant shift for the DFB, but only time will tell if this is the marquee moment it feels like today.

Sasic's new role up top

Sasic, who won two Euros with Germany as well a 2015 Champions League winner with FFC Frankfurt, began working as an integration ambassador for the DFB during her playing career back in 2010.

Her appointment in a new role as head of diversity is an open acknowledgement that this work requires greater focus — in the past, Ratzeburg was vice president of both diversity and women's football — and that the world's largest sports association must finally take steps to represent everyone in its country.

"I want to be part of the change," Sasic told a press conference on Friday. "I myself have been able to experience the power of football firsthand, and I want to continue to use this power for society. We need to strengthen the common good and strengthen the big issues of this time like the common good, sustainability and diversity."

This is part of the change that new DFB president Neuendorf wants, and he emphasized again on Friday that it was high time the DFB started to catch up with other organizations when it comes to equality and diversity.

"We have become younger. We have become more female. These are all very important signals," Neuendorf said Friday. "And that makes me proud and allows me to look to the future with confidence and great pleasure."

His words were positive and the appointment of former Germany striker at the largest sports association in the world is a promising step, but it remains a concern that, in the 122 years of the DFB, Sasic is just one of five women to ever be on the DFB board.

Furthermore, it is striking that female candidates felt they couldn't enter the race for the top job because victory was virtually an impossibility. As Katja Kraus of the women's initiative Fussball kann mehr (Football Can Do More) told DW in an interview recently: "There was no willingness to be open to a democratic process, to welcoming female candidates, male candidates and teams with different approaches."

Movement is key

Hannelore Ratzeburg, who was given a fitting sendoff and awarded an honorary membership after spending decades developing the women's game in Germany, even quipped in her farewell speech that much more work needed to be done.

"Forty-five years at the DFB is a long time," Ratzeburg said. "It hasn't always been easy, but I've always enjoyed it. Football is about movement and not just on the field but also in the presidium."

Sasic's arrival is a start, but as Thomas Weikert, head of the German Olympic committee, said this must be the start, not just a moment.

"We have to more to remove hurdles for women in sport," Weikert said at the podium in Bonn. "Sport is a mirror of society. Underrepresentation in politics and society are present. Let sport set a good example."

The hope is that finally the DFB and this new-look board under Neuendorf will deliver tangible change.

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp