Deutsche Welle (English edition)
DFB president Fritz Keller 'rules out resigning' after making Nazi remark
The president of the German football association was under pressure to resign on Tuesday after comparing one of his colleagues with infamous Nazi judge Roland Freisler. Keller has admitted he made a "serious mistake''.
Fritz Keller, president of the German soccer federation, says he will not step down from his role after comparing one of his vice presidents to infamous Nazi judge Roland Freisler.
Keller said Tuesday he made a "serious mistake'' after making the remark about Rainer Koch at a federation meeting on Friday, but he stopped short of apologizing again.
"I assumed that the apology I made to him in writing and on the telephone would be accepted immediately. This assumption was wrong, based on his written answer to me yesterday,'' Keller said in a statement on the federation's website.
'I rule out resigning'
Despite widespread criticism, including from within the federation itself, Keller said: "I rule out resigning.''
Koch, who has yet to accept Keller's apology, also works as a judge at the higher regional court in Munich.
The South German soccer federation called Keller's remark "completely unacceptable'' — a reaction shared by the German soccer league, which represents the country's 36 professional teams, and others.
"Regardless of the fact that I don't know the context in which the undisputed remark of the DFB (federation) president was made, comparisons with one of the most terrible judges of the Nazi era are inexcusable,'' said Dagmar Freitag, who heads the German Bundestag's sports committee.
Freisler, as a participant in the Wannsee Conference of 1942, was one of the Nazis responsible for the organization of the Holocaust.
He became president of the People's Court, where he issued around 2,600 death sentences to opponents of the Nazi regime.
Years of scandal
Keller was appointed head of the German soccer federation in September 2019. The former Freiburg president was seen as the best candidate to help it emerge from years of scandal.
"The only way to further develop German football from the bottom to the top is together, as a team,'' Keller said at the time.
Keller's predecessor, Reinhard Grindel, resigned after accepting a luxury watch amid allegations of undeclared earnings
and general discontent with his leadership.
Former federation presidents Wolfgang Niersbach and Theo Zwanziger were both forced out amid allegations of corruption concerning Germany's 2006 World Cup bid.
Keller's leadership has been marked lately by infighting at the federation. The 64-year-old has been involved in a power struggle with general secretary Friedrich Curtius.
mds/jh (dpa/reuters)
give me lots of strength." Not fazed by sexist remarks
Despite the positive reactions, the 26-year-old knows there might be instances where her gender would make her a target, but Berman believes she’s strong enough to live with it.
"As part of my job, I hear lots of sexist insults, and other discriminatory insults, being shouted at stadiums. I learned how to filter them completely."
She intends to continue in her refereeing career in the Israeli Premier League, in which she's been officiating games since the
beginning of last season. Her dream, she says, is officiating games internationally.
“That would be a dream come true,” she said.
At the start of the 2018/19 season, semiprofessional referee Lucy Clark, of England, became the highest-profile referee to come out as transgender.
The effect coming out
of Berman’s
Speaking about her experiences after her first season as a woman, she told the English FA's website that she wished she had told the football world years ago. She officiated games in the lower divisions of England's football pyramid, as well as in some of England's amateur men's leagues.
One of the byproducts of Sapir Berman’s decision to come out is that for the first time, the Israeli top-flight has a female referee, a milestone for Referees' Association chairwoman Ronit Tirosh.
"One of my goals entering
this role was to make sure there’s a female referee in the Premier League, I thank Sapir for helping me in achieving this goal way quicker than expected.”
Berman will officiate her first Israeli Premier League game as a woman on Saturday as Hapoel Haifa host Beitar Jerusalem.