Reinhard Grindel

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Reinhard Grindel (2018)

Reinhard Dieter Grindel (born September 19, 1961 in Hamburg ) is a German journalist , politician ( CDU ) and sports official .

Grindel was a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 to 2016 . On April 15, 2016, he was elected President of the German Football Association (DFB) and then resigned from the Bundestag on June 3. On April 2, 2019, he resigned as DFB President with immediate effect.

Life

Early years and profession

As a teenager, Grindel played in midfield for a few years and later as a goalkeeper at SC Victoria Hamburg . Because of incompatible contact lenses and disturbing glasses, he ended his active career in the B youth. After high school in 1981 in Hamburg Reinhard Grindel completed a scholarship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation to study law at the University of Hamburg , which he in 1988 with the first legal state exam ended.

After completing his studies, Grindel first worked as an editor for state politics at Radio Schleswig-Holstein (R.SH) in Kiel . In 1989 he moved to Bonn as a correspondent for the broadcaster and the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung . In 1991 he switched to television as an editor in the Bonn studio of Sat.1 , and in 1992 he became senior editor in the ZDF studio in Bonn . In 1997 he took over the management of the ZDF regional studio in Berlin until he was finally head of the ZDF studio in Brussels from 1999 to 2002 .

Reinhard Grindel is married and has two sons.

politics

Grindel joined the CDU in 1977. He was initially involved in the Junge Union , whose state board in Hamburg he was a member from 1979 to 1985. From 1981 to 1987 he was also a member of the CDU district committee Hamburg-Eimsbüttel , from 1982 to 1988 he was a member of the local district assembly .

Grindel was a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 to 2016 . In 2002 and 2005 he entered the Bundestag via the Lower Saxony state list . In the 2009 federal elections , he won the Rotenburg I - Soltau-Fallingbostel constituency directly against Lars Klingbeil (SPD) with 40.2 percent . In the 17th electoral term he was a member of the Bundestag interior committee. In 2013 , too , he won a direct seat in the Bundestag with 44.8 percent of the vote. In the 18th legislative period he was deputy chairman of the sports committee . In June 2016, after being elected President of the German Football Association, Grindel resigned from his seat; Kathrin Rösel moved up for him in the Bundestag.

Since 2003 Grindel has been deputy chairman of the CDU district association Elbe-Weser.

Functions in football

Reinhard Grindel is a member of Rotenburger SV ; he was at times press officer on the club's board of directors. From 2011 to 2014 he was 1st Vice President of the Lower Saxony Football Association , and he is also Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Enke Foundation .

From October 2013 to April 2016 he was treasurer in the executive committee of the DFB . After Grindel was nominated by the amateur fraction of the DFB in November 2015 as the successor to the resigned Wolfgang Niersbach , he was elected DFB President on April 15, 2016. From 2017 to 2019 he was a member of the UEFA Executive Committee and UEFA Vice-President. As UEFA Vice President, he was also the association's Compliance Officer. He was also a member of the FIFA Council from 2017 to 2019.

On April 2, 2019, Grindel resigned from his position as DFB President with immediate effect. He justified this, among other things, with the persistent criticism of his, literally, “poorly exemplary behavior” in connection with the controversial acceptance of a luxury watch as a gift from a Ukrainian oligarch , with which he prejudices corruption and commercialism against full-time or voluntary workers in football have confirmed. In the run-up to his resignation, there was also increased criticism of Grindel's administration as president. To him was, among other things failed to supply additional income of over 78,000 euros as chairman of the board of the DFB Media Manager in office accused. In addition, Grindel was repeatedly criticized for his public communication and the unscrupulous handling of the media after he broke off an interview with Deutsche Welle because of questions he did not like. Since the summer of 2018, Grindel had been controversial because of his public dealings with Mesut Özil .

Shortly after his resignation as DFB President, it seemed as if Grindel would continue to play football in his functions as a member of the FIFA Council and as Vice President of the UEFA Executive Committee . In fact, a few days after his resignation as DFB president, Grindel also submitted a resignation request to both associations. In July 2019, Grindel and ZDF reached an out-of-court settlement. A legal dispute about his statutory right of return as a former member of the Bundestag, which is regulated in the Deputies Act, is thus excluded. Grindel will not return to ZDF.

criticism

In 2013, Grindel gave a speech in the Bundestag's discussion on the option model , in which he stated: "If you say yes to Germany, if you want to live with us, I can also expect the decision for German citizenship by giving up your old citizenship" . The Green politicians Özcan Mutlu and Ekin Deligöz complained with 37 other signatories in July 2013 in an open letter to the DFB; Mutlu said in 2018: “What Grindel was saying wasn't just tendentious. It was pure AfD speech before this party even existed. "

In November 2015, criticism of Grindel became public for two further reasons: In the vote on the amendment to Section 108e StGB on the criminal liability of bribery of parliamentarians on April 23, 2014, Grindel was one of seven members who abstained, three voted against the amendment, while 582 MPs approved the law. He was also criticized for his dual role as a DFB official and member of the sports committee.

In an article by Spiegel in 2016 about his behavior before the election as DFB chairman, Grindel was attributed great joviality and a tough elbow mentality , and he was also seen there as someone who got his way with bad letters, rough phone calls or threats. He even exerted massive pressure on banal processes. He was described as flexible in opinion and always yielding when it was of personal use to him. Since he is politically closer to Horst Seehofer (CSU) than Angela Merkel (CDU) and therefore mostly emphasizes the problems of immigration , he does not promote the integration of migrants in the DFB.

Mesut Özil , who resigned from the German national team after the 2018 World Cup, criticized Grindel massively. The reason for the resignation was the discussion about a joint photo opportunity between Özil and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . Özil accused Grindel of a lack of support and a lack of interest in Özil's position, pure pursuit of his own political interests and racism . The above-mentioned points of criticism were also partially raised. Özil had criticized: “I know that [Grindel] wanted me out of the team after the picture, and he published his opinion on Twitter without thinking or consulting, but Joachim Löw and Oliver Bierhoff supported me and gave me strength . In the eyes of Grindel and his supporters, I am German if we win, but a migrant if we lose. [...] People with a racially discriminatory background should not be allowed to work in the largest football association in the world, which has many players with two home countries. "

In the current sports studio , Grindel said in September 2018 to a kicker interview in which he asked Özil to comment on the photo session and for which he was criticized that he had "never commented on Mesut's athletic performance". It is "absurd to assume that a player [is] solely responsible for the elimination of the national team." At the time of the interview, in which he had asked Özil to comment on the photo with Erdoğan, he and Oliver Bierhoff assumed that that Özil will continue to play for Germany. According to Grindel, it was his idea to “bring fans and [Mesut Özil] together”. With İlkay Gündoğan , who also took part in the meeting with Erdoğan and who commented on the controversy in an interview, he succeeded in doing this. Gündoğan told him that the conversation he had with Grindel before the first game after the World Cup against France went well and that he had never had a problem with Grindel. In addition, Grindel stated that he did not want to remove Özil from the team before the World Cup, but that national coach Joachim Löw had "the last word on the question of the squad composition". Grindel also admitted that Özil had to be “defended” more against racist comments. Before that, Özil had not commented publicly on the Erdoğan meeting and was the only national player to be absent from the media day before the World Cup. At that time Grindel was still accused of wanting to sweep the subject under the rug.

Regarding the topic of integration, Grindel also said “that [he] has always campaigned for togetherness” and positioned himself against a so-called parallel society : “For me, integration is not about accepting that people just live next to each other, over 20 , Have lived in Germany for 30 years, maybe not even able to speak the language and not even able to make contact with Germans. "

On March 29, 2019, Der Spiegel reported that Grindel had been chairman of the supervisory board of DFB-Medien Verwaltungs-Gesellschaft from July 2016 to July 2017 and had received a total of 78,000 euros without publicly disclosing this. During this period he only attended two meetings. After taking office as DFB boss in April 2016, he received 4,400 euros a month, plus 7,200 euros in allowance and 7,200 euros for loss of earnings. In April 2017, after being elected to the decision-making bodies of FIFA and Uefa, Grindel waived payment of the loss of earnings, for which he received 500,000 euros a year. Nevertheless, he continued to receive money from the DFB-Medien Verwaltungs-Gesellschaft until July 2017.

On April 1st, the Ukrainian oligarch and football official Hryhorij Surkis received a luxury watch worth 6,000 euros as a present for Grindel's 2017 birthday . Reinhard Grindel stated this as the reason for his resignation. On April 14, it was announced that the Ulysse Nardin Marine + Chronograph caliber UN-150 , not as specified by Grindel, cost 6,000 euros, but had a list price of 11,800 euros in 2017. The import of the watch from Switzerland must be subject to additional tax.

literature

  • Jürgen Dahlkamp, ​​Gunther Latsch, Gerhard Pfeil, Jörg Schmitt: President Embarrassing . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 2019, pp. 104-106 ( Online - Mar. 30, 2019 ).

Web links

Commons : Reinhard Grindel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Reinhard Grindel, CDU / CSU. In: German Bundestag. Retrieved July 7, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Press release from June 1st, 2016: Grindel officially resigns from his mandate. In: reinhard-grindel.de. Retrieved June 7, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Personal statement by Reinhard Grindel , accessed on April 2, 2019 on DFB.de.
  4. ↑ Grindel resigns as president, Koch and Rauball interim top, accessed on April 2, 2019 on DFB.de.
  5. ↑ After increasing criticism: DFB President Grindel resigns , accessed on April 2, 2019 on tagesschau.de
  6. ↑ a b c Melanie Amann, Rafael Buschmann: The fourth moult . Der Spiegel , April 4, 2016, accessed March 25, 2018.
  7. ^ Members of the Sports Committee - 18th Bundestag. German Bundestag , archived from the original on September 24, 2014 ; accessed on July 7, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Board of Trustees. Robert Enke Foundation , accessed on July 7, 2018 .
  9. ^ Re-election as DFB President: 100 percent support for Niersbach , Spiegel Online, October 25, 2013
  10. ↑ Matthias Freese: "I know where the shoe pinches" , Kreiszeitung.de, October 26, 2013
  11. ↑ Reinhard Grindel on the UEFA homepage
  12. ↑ Personal statement by Reinhard Grindel , accessed on April 2, 2019 on DFB.de.
  13. ↑ Grindel resigns as president, Koch and Rauball interim top, accessed on April 2, 2019 on DFB.de.
  14. ↑ After increasing criticism: DFB President Grindel resigns , accessed on April 2, 2019 on tagesschau.de
  15. ^ ZEIT ONLINE: Reinhard Grindel. DFB President resigns . In: The time . April 2, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed April 2, 2019]).
  16. ↑ Trouble at Fifa and Uefa - Grindel confirms all prejudices. Comment on sueddeutsche.de , accessed on April 3, 2019.
  17. ↑ Grindel resigns from his positions at FIFA and UEFA. kicker online , April 10, 2019, accessed on April 10, 2019 .
  18. ↑ FAZ : Former DFB President Grindel does not return to ZDF , July 9, 2019
  19. ↑ Michael Reinsch: DFB: Presidential candidate Grindel defends himself against criticism , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung online November 19, 2015, access July 25, 2018
  20. ↑ Rainer Woratschka: DFB President in the Özil debate: Even the politician Reinhard Grindel was against multiculturalism , Der Tagesspiegel , online July 11, 2018, access July 24, 2018
  21. ↑ Martin Schneider: Resignation from the DFB team - Özil's criticism of DFB President Grindel , Süddeutsche Zeitung , online July 23, 2018, access July 24, 2018
  22. ↑ Mirjam Rüscher: DFB candidate Grindel: The page changer . Der Spiegel , November 21, 2015, accessed on November 22, 2015.
  23. ^ After the Erdogan affair: The Özil statements in full . spiegel.de.
  24. ^ Sid: Mesut Özil: All three parts of his statement in full. eurosport.de , July 23, 2018, accessed January 10, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Future of the national player still open - Grindel: "Özil should speak publicly". kicker.de , July 8, 2018, accessed on July 26, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Grindel's contradictions in the Özil case. sport1.de , July 18, 2018, accessed on April 2, 2019 .
  27. ↑ a b c Reinhard Grindel visiting the current sportstudio on September 29, 2018 on YouTube
  28. ↑ Özil skips media day because of criticism of Erdoğan's photo. sz.de , June 5, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018 .
  29. ↑ DFB media day: 22 players provide information, only Mesut Özil not. Welt Online , June 5, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Jürgen Dahlkamp: DFB President Grindel - end without decency. Spiegel Online , April 2, 2019, accessed April 2, 2019 .
  31. ↑ DFB boss - Grindel withheld income from subsidiaries. Spiegel Online , March 29, 2019, accessed April 2, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Grindel's watch was probably twice as expensive. Spiegel Online , April 12, 2019, accessed April 19, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Grindel, Reinhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grindel, Reinhard Dieter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, politician (CDU) and sports official
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg