Former national goalkeeper and official Katja Krause does not want to become the president of the German Football Association (DFB). “I don’t aim for an office. We shouldn’t follow the same reaction in talking about names again. Because that’s simply not worth the office,” said the 50-year-old at ZDF’s current sports studio.
Krause, who has published a position paper with eight other notable women in football, called for “Change, this is what it is all about. If football is to regain its strength, it needs to change.”
“We have a large group of women and we said that if we made demands, we were also willing to take responsibility,” said Krause. But this “has nothing to do with government offices.”
The German Football Association, which needs a successor after Fritz Keeler resigns as president, must reposition itself from scratch. “If the structure and culture are not changed, then there will be no one who can lead the association,” Krause said. The disagreements that have occurred in the last few months in the assembly are “part of this power system. The discussions were not about the content.”
For a former Hamburg S board member, “New people are needed. It needs a process. It needs an exceptional Bundestag. Renewal cannot be done with the people who caused the problems.”
Women are fully capable of improving football. Krause criticized: “In the past, competence was not rated”: “The circle of those who were chosen was very, very narrow.”
More influence on the part of women is important in many ways. “Football, with its enormous social impact, is a role model,” said Krause. It is, of course, a “question of justice”.