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German football boss re-elected unopposed

Other News Materials 22 October 2010 19:21 (UTC +04:00)
The president of the German football federation (DFB) Theo Zwanziger was on Friday re-elected unopposed,
German football boss re-elected unopposed

The president of the German football federation (DFB) Theo Zwanziger was on Friday re-elected unopposed, dpa reported

None of the 255 delegates at the DFB general meeting in Essen voted against the 65-year-old who will be in charge of the world's biggest sporting federation with 6.7 million members for the third term.

"I am grateful for your confidence and will attempt to give my best. If it is always good enough for the federation we will see at the end of the three years," he said.

Although Zwanziger had to endure several difficult phases in his previous terms of office, like the problems in renewing coach Joachim Loew's contract or alleged poor crisis-management around a refereeing scandal and the most recent issue with Chancellor Angela Merkel, his re-election was widely applauded.

The lawyer admitted that he made mistakes with the Loew issue. "We had three or four days during which we should have spoken to each other. I should have picked up a phone and spoken to him and am very sad that I did not do that."

Zwanziger again praised DFB sporting director Matthias Sammer. "Sometimes he is a bit difficult, but he is a great sporting director and I am looking forward to working with him as long as he wishes."

The head of the German football league Reinhard Rauball told the meeting that professional football was as strong as ever in the country. "Football is more popular then ever before and there is no end in sight of the growth."

He warned though that the league should not sit back on its laurels and pointed out that they invest 83 million euros (116 million dollars) in youth football.

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