Fritz Keller, the president of the German Football Association (DFB), has offered to step down from his post amid a backlash after he compared vice president Rainer Koch to an infamous Nazi judge.
The DFB announced in a statement that Keller was poised to offer his resignation, saying that he has "declared his principal readiness to step down from his position as President after the end of the process at the DFB Sports Court on Monday (May 17)".
The development follows comments made by Keller at a recent board meeting which were resoundingly condemned by the country's football chiefs and led to a secret ballot which saw a no-confidence vote on his leadership.
At an extraordinary meeting of the DFB presidential board on 11 May 2021, the association decided on action regarding the ongoing leadership crisis and set the course for a restructuring of the DFB ➡️ https://t.co/Fq1Q3JIDovpic.twitter.com/lWYpmze4ac
The furore stems from comments made by Keller in which he compared Koch to disgraced Nazi judge Roland Freisler – a key figure in the implementation of the so-called 'Final Solution' used to refer to the systematic purging and murder of German Jews.
Freisler was also president of the German's People's Court, where he ruled that more than 2,600 people were to be put to death for opposing the Nazi regime.
The scandal is the latest bad press to have hit the DFB in recent years. Keller replaced Reinhard Grindel in the top job in 2019 after an investigation found that his predecessor accepted illegal gifts and failed to declare earnings during his time in charge, while last October DFB offices were raided amid allegations that unnamed officials had engaged in tax evasion.
Last year also saw a fraud trial involving three former high-ranking officials from the DFB collapse amid another investigation into the circumstances that saw Germany awarded hosting rights for the 2006 World Cup.
Legendary German footballer Franz Beckenbauer, who was chairman of the 2006 World Cup organizing committee, was connected to those allegations but was never charged during a period of ill health he was experiencing.
Anyone involved in the proceedings has since escaped punishment after the statute of limitations expired.
