Hard times for the German NOC, the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). Although German elite sports are likely to receive 2.5 to 3 billion euros from public funds during the current and next Olympic period (a top position worldwide, they love to hide the real funding), the alarm bells are ringing.
New federal elections will be held in Germany at the beginning of 2025. As a result, a planned sports funding law will have to be postponed, along with the establishment of a so-called elite sports agency, which is intended to take the highly inefficient funding of sports to new heights.
Since the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) under Chancellor Olaf Scholz will most likely lose power, further problems are on the cards:
- Scholz had made the so-called German bid for the Olympics (from 2040) a top priority.
Jens Weinreich
- The Social Democrats also controlled the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for elite sports.
- The Social Democrats also held other important committees and, for the first time, the top positions in the DOSB, as well as in the most important sports associations (including football) and the Paralympic Sports Association.
These cards are being reshuffled.
In addition, DOSB president Thomas Weikert (SPD), once president of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), has already had to deal with a demand for his resignation.
This is how NOC president Weikert summarised the situation of the so-called Olympic bid in an email to stakeholders that was sent yesterday:
At the 2024 General Assembly, the Executive Board will ask the members to pass a resolution to enter into a continuous dialogue with the IOC and thus take the next step towards a bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. According to the new roadmap to be adopted by the general assembly, the rough concepts for a bid, which have been developed by the DOSB in the course of the fundamental process to date, are to be refined by the participating cities and federal states in dialogue with the DOSB in the first half of 2025. The DOSB board plans to present at least a final concept at the 2025 general meeting and put it to the vote, with which Germany will bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
So that's the latest. Once again, a road map is being replaced by the next road map. Oh yes, and they now want to talk to the IOC. But with whom there?
The IOC has obviously put such talks on ice until after the presidential election.
Jens Weinreich
In addition, there are quite a few people in the IOC, where the twilight of the gods is underway and Thomas Bach, the only great hope of the so-called German Olympic bid, is now becoming a lame duck, who want to return to a different kind of Olympic bid system. Perhaps not better, but definitely more transparent than the current scandalously non-transparent bid system.
There will also be decisive personnel changes in the IOC administration in 2025 after the IOC presidential election.
Perhaps even more interesting than the ridiculous shameful situation of a so-called Olympic bid, for which there are no concepts whatsoever, is the financial aspect that the DOSB has to master. Once again from Weikert's email:
