A little more than three years ago, the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) found itself in the most tense phase in its history. He went through severe turbulence for months, culminating in the departure of President Alfons Hörmann and CEO Veronika Rücker. The central message of the new leadership around the new association boss Thomas Weikert was that they wanted to lead the troubled German sport into calmer waters.
Three years later, there can be no talk of peace. Instead, the DOSB gives an extremely poor picture. Various problems are lined up one after the other, and two points in particular stand out: the separation from CEO Torsten Burmester, 61, and the stalled bid for the Olympics – behind both of them is the question of how the balance of power will be rearranged. President Weikert, 63, is not considered to be a particularly strong leader. And so things could be controversial when the DOSB meets for the general meeting in Saarbrücken this weekend; perhaps less in the public part on Saturday, but in all the internal committee meetings surrounding the event.
The departure of CEO Burmester is causing immediate anger these days. On Monday, the Executive Board decided to dismiss its top full-time official with immediate effect. Now those involved are still negotiating the details of the contract termination; As can be seen from internal emails, an additional position will be added to the board of directors as a transitional measure.
A lot has built up between full-time and voluntary work, the board and the presidium
The apparent reason for the separation was Burmester’s candidacy for mayor of his hometown of Cologne. It obviously annoyed some presidents that the SPD politician did not inform them in advance before speculation about a candidacy first became public. When this was decided in November, the DOSB announced that there would definitely be a change in the position of CEO. That was remarkable because Burmester’s contract had only been extended until 2029 at the beginning of the year.
But the relationship between CEO Burmester and President Weikert is said to have been no longer as good as it was in the early days. In the DOSB, a lot of things have built up between full-time and voluntary positions, i.e. between the board and the presidium. This became public, not least in the context of the selection of Karlsruhe as the venue for the 2029 World Games. The ethics commission, headed by the former Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière, stated that the process had been “unfortunate”; “There can be no question of a “fair and correct procedure”. His commission urgently recommended “that coordination problems between the presidium and the board (…) be avoided and, if necessary, remedied.”
De Maizière’s reprimand referred to the awarding of the World Games, but the tenor actually concerns many other topics and, above all, the question of who is actually responsible for which topic. Formally, the DOSB enshrined a clear separation in its statutes ten years ago: the board of directors and the associated main office should take care of operational business, and the executive board should only act as a kind of supervisory board. But things weren’t lived that way in the Hörmann era – and obviously not anymore.
A specific Olympic candidate was supposed to be chosen in Saarbrücken, but that has been postponed
The outgoing CEO Burmester does not want to comment on the reasons for the departure. President Weikert says: “It is not about the relationship between the president and the CEO, but rather about the fact that the presidium must protect the interests of the DOSB and act for the benefit of the DOSB.” The CEO is “an outstanding position in which clear decisions are made “must be done”, Burmester’s dismissal “there is no alternative”. But at the same time, there is already a debate in sports about how long Weikert and the presidium can actually last; it is elected until 2026. There will soon be at least one new face in this circle because a new vice president will be elected in Saarbrücken.
All of these frictions obviously also play into the topic that is always very important to sport: the Olympic bid. Two years ago, the DOSB began to build the foundations for a new candidacy. Given the realities of international sports policy, an early award was always unrealistic – because everything is forgiven until 2034, it is unlikely for summer 2036, winter is out of the question, at best something could be possible from 2040. But after two failed citizens’ votes, the DOSB tried to create the basis for a new willingness in the country with a broad dialogue process. This year, however, there has been a noticeable turning point. The application process has become both slower and more confusing.
Just a year ago it was decided to identify a concrete candidacy with a concrete concept in Saarbrücken. Those responsible have moved away from this. Now the assembly should simply vote to enter into “Continuous Dialogue” with the IOC; This is a section of the new IOC application process that initially means that a country is fundamentally interested in hosting games again.
Even the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder criticizes the DOSB
The DOSB acts as if this delay in the schedule was not its fault and refers to the “federal budget freeze at the end of last year (…). Only since the federal government’s cabinet decision at the end of July 2024 has the DOSB had final certainty that an application is financially viable,” he says: “In addition, due to the political framework, we have not yet been able to discuss the developed concepts with the IOC.”
But the delay actually has a lot to do with internal debates – and there were shifts in the concept. In recent years, those responsible for the DOSB have always stated that at least two cities or regions must submit an application. The reason: Nothing new should be built, and that can only be guaranteed if several places candidacy. Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and the Rhine/Ruhr region basically declared their willingness. But there is now increasing discussion again about the classic approach of entering the race with just one city and possibly smaller affiliated branches.
Many people involved are disturbed by the approach. Recently even the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder criticized the change of course. “We wouldn’t have had anything against it if you made an application with several cities,” he told ARD. “It should not give the impression that things have already been decided in advance. A bargain in favor of one location endangers the entire German application.”
The DOSB says that the guiding principle applies “as centrally as possible, as decentralized as necessary”. Paris 2024 has just shown that at the Summer Games it makes sense to accommodate the majority of athletes in one village, and therefore plans are being made for an Olympic Village in which as many athletes as possible come together – emphasis on “one”.
The fundamental question is why these serious shifts actually occur. And the eyes in German sport are on sports manager Michael Mronz, 57, who has been established in sport for years as chief marketer of the CHIO equestrian competition in Aachen and initiator of an Olympic application from Rhine/Ruhr. In October 2023, Mronz became the third German to join the International Olympic Committee alongside President Thomas Bach and athlete representative Kim Bui, which also came as a surprise to some high-ranking national officials.
Just by looking at the timing, it is noticeable how just a few months after Mronz’s election to the IOC, the DOSB’s priorities shifted when it came to the Olympic issue. As an IOC member, Mronz is also a member of the DOSB Presidium, and he also sits on the newly introduced “steering group”, which currently consists of four people.
Mronz himself does not answer the question of whether it is true that the changes were due to him in particular; Instead, “the answer from the DOSB” comes from the association’s press office: “Various committees are involved in the opinion-forming and development of strategies in the process of the Olympic bid,” it says. “In addition to national framework conditions, it is of course always important to take into account the international perspective.”
That just barely disguises how crucial it is what the IOC member thinks.
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