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Agency Report-
Berlin – Germany’s leading three sports organizations have called for the appointment of a sports minister in the new goverment after next month’s general election.
Sports is currently part of the portfolio of the interior minister.
Presidents Bernd Neuendorf of the German Football Federation (DFB), Thomas Weikert of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and Friedhelm Beucher from the German Paralympic Committee (DBS) told Die Zeit weekly they want this to change.
“We finally need an office where all the threads come together and which represents the interests of sport in the federal cabinet,” Neuendorf sid.
“And, like culture, it should ideally be located in the Chancellery.”
Results of German athletes have been on the decline since reunification in 1990, and the three presidents also want annual government sports funding to rise by €2 billion ($2.08 billion).
Neuendorf said that sport in Germany must finally be given the status it deserves in society.
“I am simply stunned that many children in Berlin and other cities are not accepted by football clubs today because the infrastructure is lacking,” he said.
The DOSB and DBS also want to push ahead with a planned bid for the 2036 or 2040 Olympic and Paralympic Games. All German Olympic bids since the 1972 Games in Munich have failed.
