BERLIN — Embattled German Football Association president Fritz Keller has been ordered to explain to the governing body’s disciplinary committee the comparison he made of his own deputy to a notorious Nazi-era judge.
Keller sparked outrage and calls for his resignation after likening DFB vice-president Rainer Koch to Roland Freisler, the infamous head of the Nazi party’s court in the 1940s, during a meeting last month.
Yesterday, the DFB’s ethics committee brought the case before their sports court, who will hear Keller’s explanation behind closed doors, either in person or a written statement.
“I will, of course, take responsibility for my statement before the (DFB) sports court,” Keller, 64, tells German daily Bild.
Hans E. Lorenz, chairman of the three-man DFB sports court, telld AFP subsidiary SID that he expects a judgement “in the second half of May.”
On Sunday, the presidents of the DFB’s regional associations, which run Germany’s semi-professional and amateur leagues, said Keller had lost a vote of confidence and been “asked to step down from his position.”
DFB general secretary Friedrich Curtius was likewise asked to vacate his role after losing a confidence vote.
Keller has apologized to Koch, acknowledging that his words were “totally inappropriate, notably towards the victims of Nazism,” but ruled out stepping down over the incident.
German football federation president Fritz Keller ahead of a soccer match between Germany and Belarus in Moenchengladbach, Germany, November 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
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