Dispute over millions of member data in the DFB – Sport’s “digital clubhouse”.

“Weekend of amateur football” is what those responsible for the German Football Association have called the event to which they are currently inviting people to their Frankfurt campus. The association would like to show its base how important it is to it with a colorful program. But when it comes to the question of what the DFB really is and its relationship to amateur football, the aftermath of this event is much more illuminating: At the beginning of next week, the presidents of the 21 regional associations will also be meeting in Frankfurt – and it’s likely to be a busy event. In any case, the mood is tense, as was already documented at meetings last week.

A lot has slipped in the political statics of the DFB. Basically, the amateur camp has so far been the power base for President Bernd Neuendorf, a former SPD state politician, who was pushed to the top of the DFB due to circumstances during the big association crisis in March 2022. But dissatisfaction had already been heard around the DFB Bundestag in November. The state associations have also been suspicious for some time now of how closely Neuendorf sticks to the Bundesliga boss and DFB vice-president Hans-Joachim Watzke, the top representative of professional football. And now in the amateur camp several topics are gathering together to form a huge storm cloud.

The number one problem concerns an area in which some regional associations are particularly stubborn: the millions of footballers in German sports clubs – and their data. To understand this, it helps to take a look at the special structure of German football. It is often said that the DFB has more than eight million members. But strictly speaking that is not true. The DFB has 27 members: the 21 state associations, five regional associations and the Bundesliga (previously DFL) as a representative of professional operations. Said eight million (a good quarter of them active players; including multiple memberships) are managed in tens of thousands of clubs in the respective regional associations – from around 44,000 in Bremen to around 1.85 million in Bavaria. This is the key with which the amateur associations can handle sports policy.

But now the DFB is pushing for a platform called “Digital Clubhouse”, on which as many, and ideally all, of the around 24,000 football clubs in the country should take part. The offer is also aimed at clubs from other sports. At first glance, it is a tool that is intended to simplify the organization of club life, which is often tedious and time-consuming. At the same time, data from as many club members as possible should be collected there. And such contact collection can be a great asset, especially for advertisers.

Such amounts of data can be particularly interesting for companies

The DFB leadership would like the regional associations to support the new digital project, especially with a view to the data they have. There are even reports from the amateur camp of a financial enticement offer. Accordingly, a pot worth two million euros was awarded; For each regional association that takes part, there is a fixed sum of 50,000 euros – and even more depending on size, hard work as a collector and other factors. In response to an SZ inquiry as to whether this is true and whether the DFB has made such an offer as well as further questions on the subject, a spokesman said in well-placed words: “The DFB would like to forego answering your questions.”

It’s apparently a hot topic. In fact, a clear signal about how the regional associations are positioning themselves is said to have been requested before next week’s meeting. Which is difficult because many questions remain unanswered.

The central question is obvious. Such amounts of data are also interesting for companies. This could be a great way to work with specially tailored advertising for people who actively do sports. However, the association prefers to “refrain” from answering the question of whether it is planned for the DFB to make such data available to its sponsoring or other partners (or whether this is ruled out).

One sponsor in particular is coming into focus – and at the center of the conflict over amateurs: the new major supplier Nike. In the spring of 2024, the crisis-plagued US company outsold its long-time DFB partner Adidas with a competitive price that caused great astonishment internationally. The Americans pay a rumored 100 million euros per year – twice as much as the previous German supplier; From January 2027, this contract will apply for the next eight years.

Nike equips the DFB. But 17 of 21 national associations are still with Adidas

In total, it’s a high three-digit million sum, although it is doubtful whether German football, which was once so celebrated and is now clattering through football’s no-man’s land, can offer adequate value. The Nike management – headed by John Donahoe when the deal was signed, who lost his job just months later due to poor numbers – probably had something other in mind than equipping a team that failed miserably early at the World Cup in the company’s USA. Top heels with Germany jerseys are currently not expected.

For this reason alone, it makes sense to look at other DFB assets; primarily on potential new customers across the board. Because there is one thing that no failure can take away from the DFB: no association in the world represents more footballers than it. Nike, on the other hand, is a company whose sales philosophy is strongly oriented towards the individual athlete or customer, while its competitor Adidas is much more active in the team sector.

But now a piquant constellation arises. Because like the DFB, the state associations also have their own equipment partners. With 17 of them, which together represent more than seven million members and which include the five with the largest number of members, such as Bavaria and Westphalia, this partner is called: Adidas. Nike is currently only sponsoring the Berlin regional association, but from 2027 Thuringia and Neuendorf’s Middle Rhine home association will be added.

In the eternal dispute over the regional league, an extraordinary Bundestag is scheduled to take place this year

Aside from Nike and the data dispute, there is growing unease at the grassroots level with other issues too. This is how the anger over the regional league reform, which has been planned for years but has always failed so far, is coming to a head. As a reminder: It is a constant annoyance for everyone involved that not all five champions can advance from the five seasons, but only four – and the representatives from Bavaria, North and Northeast have to take turns in the playoffs.

Neuendorf delegated the topic to a working group that came up with the so-called “compass model”: After that, there should only be four regional league seasons, the composition of which is no longer tied to specific associations, but changes from year to year. The model met with great resistance from the leaders of the five regional league carriers; it failed in the vote. It was agreed that the majority of clubs in all five regions would have to be in favor of it. In fact, this was only the case in the west, east and northeast; the southwest and Bavaria preferred other solutions. Now it is said that Neuendorf’s DFB leadership wants to put the compass model on the table again – and there will be an extraordinary Bundestag this year. The potential for conflict is guaranteed here too.

And then there is a third topic that gets the amateurs into high gear: the role of their first vice-president in the DFB presidium. Ronny Zimmermann, head of the Baden association, likes to operate closely at Neuendorf’s side. Too narrow for parts of the amateur camp; many see their interests as being too weakly represented. Zimmermann’s predecessor as top amateur vice-president, the Bavarian Rainer Koch, was controversial for many reasons: he always pulled the strings in his own interests, but he was also seen as someone who effectively stood up for the amateurs. Little of this is noticeable with the lawyer Zimmermann. In an internal chat session, Bavaria’s head of state Christoph Kern even openly mentioned him – and mentioned an agenda item with the telling subject “Representation of amateur football interests”.

At least one strong group of regional associations would like to get rid of Zimmermann. There are also names of people interested in being a successor circulating. The DFB Bundestag only confirmed Zimmermann in office in November. However, an opportunity soon presents itself to his opponents. The association day of the southern German regional association, which Zimmermann also chairs, is scheduled for October 17th in Augsburg. If someone were to compete there and beat him, the consequences would also be foreseeable at the DFB level.