Gianni Infantino remains FIFA President for another four years.Bild: AP / Alessandra Tarantino
football column
In his weekly column, fan researcher Harald Lange writes exclusively on watson about the things that are currently moving football in Germany.
More recognition is not possible! Gianni Infantino was applauded at the 73rd Fifa Congress in Kigali (Rwanda) to start his next term as Fifa President. This strange election ritual is only possible because the Swiss football boss is allowed to compete unopposed. This is laid down in the statutes of the World Football Association and was staged in exactly the same way at the congress in Paris four years ago. This form of self-adulation is known to every football boss in the 211 member nations.
I mean this is embarrassing. Both for Fifa and for all 211 presidents of the national associations, who have allowed this act of self-portrayal for the second time in a row. Opposition is different. At least if you mean it seriously.
Then you develop an idea, translate it into a program and integrate companions. That’s where the problem lies. Apart from Norwegian President Lise Klaeveness, none of the 211 football bosses dare to go where it hurts with their criticism of Infantino: On the public podium or in a real election situation where you have to stretch your hand against Infantino – visible to everyone else.
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Even if there had only been one, three or ten votes against, the dissenters could have given a visible signal and expressed serious opposition work. Now we have a completely different character: Applause for Infantino and the narcissistic certainty of the Fifa family that everything is basically going well in world football.
DFB takes refuge in buttery political speech
What remains is once again symbolic politics. The President of the German Football Association (DFB) Bernd Neuendorf only managed to formulate publicly on the day before the election that he would “not support” Infantino in the re-election. In the press release from the DFB, there is no mention of a dissenting vote. The rest is buttery politician Speak:
“FIFA needs to be much more open and transparent in its dealings with the national associations. In its own interest, it should explain how and why certain decisions are made and who was involved in them. That hasn’t always been the case lately.”
Maybe we can’t expect more. I would therefore like to ask Mr. Neuendorf the following on the subject of “transparency”: Can you fulfill what you so openly expect from Fifa in the DFB executive floor?
Columnist and fan researcher Harald LangeImage: University of Würzburg
About the author
Harald Lange has been a professor of sports science at the University of Würzburg since 2009. He heads the “Fan and Football Research” project and is considered one of the best-known sports researchers in Germany. The 55-year-old writes and talks about football every day, including in his seminar “Which football do we want?”
Fifa and DFB: Why there is not a big difference
For example, consider the past few weeks since the World Cup disaster in Qatar. How did you deal with the transparency? Why did the back room doors stay locked for so long? What is this half-hearted and meaningless World Cup analysis? Why the convening of the old men’s task force and the appointment of Rudi Völler to the post of sports director by Hans-Joachim Watzke on the spur of the moment? Were these steps transparent to the committees and the base of the DFB?
“Do you think you are already a guiding light for the democratic organization of football?”
The results of the large DFB base study were published a year ago. Accordingly, only 4.9 percent of those surveyed agreed that the elections in the DFB Bundestag would correspond to their ideas of good democracy. 70.1 percent were convinced of the opposite. The rest were unsure. And here, too, I ask: What reforms in the DFB electoral law have you initiated so far?
In view of the criticism leveled at the DFB leadership, the question may be asked whether your elections are really better than Fifa’s? What do you think of the proposal to reform the DFB in the coming years? So that the approval from the base is growing again and the association can be considered a role model for Fifa. Or do you assume that you are already a guiding light for the democratic organization of football?
Then your statement against Fifa and Infantino could have been stronger!
Mick Schumacher and team boss Günther Steiner worked together for two years in the Haas team in Formula 1, pulled together and both wanted to score as many points as possible. However, the 23-year-old only managed to do that twice in two seasons.
