American Football Association Germany

American Football Association Germany
Founded	October 16, 1982
president	Robert Huber
societies	450
Members	67,295
Association headquarters	Frankfurt am Main
Homepage	www.afvd.de

The American Football Association Germany e. V. ( AFVD ) is the umbrella organization for American football and cheerleading in Germany . Around 450 clubs with over 60,000 members are organized in it (as of January 1, 2019: 67,295, of which 44,044 male and 23,262 female), almost half of all American football players in Europe.

history

See also : "History" in the article American Football in Germany

The Northwest German Football League split off from the American Football Bund Deutschland (AFBD), founded in 1979 . Due to the insolvency of the AFBD, the regional associations and clubs of the AFBD gathered under the umbrella of the AFVD, which was founded on October 16, 1982.

On May 16, 1993, the AFVD was recognized by the German Sports Confederation and is today a member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), IFAF Europe , the European Cheerleading Association (ECA) and the International Federation of Cheerleading (IFC). The association is divided into 15 regional associations that cover all federal states. The AFVD is based in Frankfurt am Main .

The AFVD is also the umbrella organization for cheerleading in Germany and has been organizing regular championships since 1992. Therefore, numerous cheerleading departments of other sports clubs (especially from the fields of basketball, handball, ice hockey and soccer) are members of the American Football Association Germany . In addition to the AFVD, cheerleading groups are also organized in the German Dance Sports Association and in the Cheerleading and Cheerdance Association Germany .

Events

The AFVD is the host of the men's German Football League (GFL) and the German Football League 2 (GFL2). In the women's division, he organizes the women's Bundesliga (DBL), in the junior division the German Football League Juniors (GFLJ) and in flag football the German Flag Football League (DFFL). Other leagues are looked after by the regional associations.

In 2003, the AFVD hosted the 2nd World Football Championship in Hanau and Wiesbaden . In November 2009, the association was the host of the Cheerleading World Cup, which took place in Bremen . In 2015, the cheerleading world championships were held again, this time in Berlin, by the AFVD. In 2000 and 2001 the AFVD hosted the American Football European Championship. The last time the American Football European Championship took place in 2010 in Frankfurt am Main , Wetzlar and Wiesbaden. The 2018 European Championship was also initially supposed to be held in Germany, but was canceled.

The German Bowl , the German championship in American football, will take place from 2019 for at least six years in the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, as it did from 2008 to 2010. In 2011 the German Bowl was held in the MDCC-Arena in Magdeburg and from 2012 to 2018 in the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in Berlin.

management

Bureau

On March 7, 2020, the Federal Assembly elected the following persons to their offices for four years:

• President: Robert Huber
• Vice President for Finance: Thomas Meyer
• Vice-Presidents: Josef Andres, Uwe Talke, Peter Springwald
• Sports director: Jan Bublitz
• Chairman of the main committee: Udo Römer (also responsible for regional associations)
• other members: Sebastian Barth (referee), Carsten Dalkowski (Bundesliga), Joachim Petersen (youth)

Former Presidents

Period	person
10 / 1982-01 / 1983	Daniel Gillon
01 / 1983-09 / 1983	vacant
09 / 1983-08 / 1984	Reinhard Lenz
10 / 1984-1986
1986-05 / 1988	Günter Franken
05 / 1988-12 / 1989	Hagen buses
12 / 1989-1993	Georg Tschurer
	Jörn Redler (interim)
05 / 1993-06 / 1994	Wolfgang Büchner
06 / 1994-02 / 1995	Gert Dannenmann
05 / 1995-03 / 1997	Roland Wingenroth
since 03/1997	Robert Huber

Regional associations

• American Football and Cheerleading Association Baden-Württemberg
• American Football Association Bavaria
• American Football and Cheerleading Association Berlin-Brandenburg
• American Football and Cheerleading Association Hamburg
• American Football Association Hessen
• American Football and Cheerleading Association Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
• American Football and Cheerleading Association Lower Saxony
• American Football and Cheerleading Association North
• American Football and Cheerleading Association North Rhine-Westphalia
• American Football and Cheerleading Association Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland
• American Football Association Saxony
• American Football Association Saxony-Anhalt
• American Football and Cheerleading Association Schleswig-Holstein
• American Football and Cheerleading Association Thuringia

According to the will of some state associations, the structure of the game operation is to change. In 2019, the state associations Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin-Brandenburg, as well as Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are aiming for joint gaming operations. The reason given was, among other things, difficulties in the organization of gaming operations with five regional associations.

Criticism and controversy

financing

In 2014, the AFVD filed a lawsuit against the Federal Ministry of the Interior before the Cologne Administrative Court because funding applications from the association had been rejected since 2012. The lawsuit was dismissed. The reason given by the court was that the association only spent around one eighth of its total budget on sports funding, but was in a position to "provide extensive funds for the purpose of remunerating its executive committee and legal representative". As a result, AFVD President Robert Huber and the high pay of the officials came under criticism. In April 2018, a petition was started on the Change.org platform, demanding that the association make its finances more transparent.

Confrontation with the IFAF

In 2015, the International Federation of American Football split into two groups after then President Tommy Wiking resigned from office on April 30th and then claimed the post again. The group around Wiking was called "IFAF Paris", while the group under the IFAF President Richard McLean , elected in 2016 , was called "IFAF New York". The AFVD, headed by Robert Huber , stood behind Wiking. As a result, the Global Association of International Sports Federations suspended IFAF 2017 due to non-payment in the anti- doping campaign . These were still negotiated by Wiking, which, according to "IFAF New York", he was not entitled to. A ruling by the International Court of Justice , according to which Wikings' resignation and McLean's election were legitimate, was initially not recognized by the AFVD. In addition, according to McLean, the AFVD did not pay any membership fees to the IFAF in 2017 and 2018, which Huber denies. The AFVD in turn accused the North American member organizations of the IFAF of financial interests and a lack of willingness in the fight against doping.

In connection with the dispute with the IFAF, the American Football European Championship 2018 was also mentioned, which was supposed to take place in Germany, but postponed indefinitely for "various organizational reasons caused by the international ( sic! ) Situation". Some commentators saw this as a result of the struggle between the two IFAF groups. According to its own statement, the AFVD did not receive an invitation to the European championship taking place in Finland instead.

See also

• German Football League
• American football world championship
• International Federation of American Football
• European Federation of American Football
• List of German football teams
• Women's football in Germany

Web links

• Official website of the American Football Association Germany
• Official website of the Cheerleaders Association Germany

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} 2019 inventory (PDF) German Olympic Sports Confederation, accessed on July 25, 2020 . 
2. ↑ AFVD website, section Association ( Memento from December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ AFVD press release of September 29, 2008 : EM 2010 in Frankfurt am Main.
4. ↑ Football EM 2018 canceled for the time being. In: laola1.at. January 9, 2018, accessed April 9, 2018 . 
5. ↑ AFVD: AFVD President Robert Huber unanimously confirmed in office. In: www.afvd.de. March 7, 2020, accessed June 13, 2020 . 
6. ↑ latest news - game operations 2018. American Football and Cheerleading Association Thuringia, January 29, 2018, accessed on September 30, 2018 . 
7. Jump up ↑ Football: Football Association sues for refused sports funding. (Not available online.) In: zeit.de . August 7, 2015, archived from the original on April 9, 2018 ; accessed on April 9, 2018 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} openJur eV: VG Köln, judgment of September 3, 2015 - Az. 16 K 2428/14. Retrieved April 9, 2018 . 
9. ^ ^{A b} Walter Reiterer: Austria's Football Portal: End of game. March 9, 2018, accessed April 9, 2018 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Markus Schulz: AFVD offside. In: american-football.com. March 15, 2018, accessed April 9, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Disclose the use of funds by the AFVD! Increases funding for competitive sports! In: Change.org. Retrieved April 9, 2018 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b c} Martin Jahns: NFL - Germany the big loser in the football power struggle: Patrick Esume sour, association boss remains tough. In: ran.de. March 22, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2018 . 
13. ^ ^{A b} Julian Reusch: NFL - Football power struggle: IFAF President and Esume contradict German association. In: ran.de. March 23, 2018, accessed April 9, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Julian Reusch: NFL - After CAS judgment: German Football Association recognizes IFAF New York - but still faces problems. In: ran.de. March 29, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2018 . 
15. ↑ AFVD stands for the European sports model. AFVD, March 8, 2018, accessed April 9, 2018 . 
16. ↑ EM 2018 postponed. January 7, 2018, accessed April 9, 2018 .