Germany’s Koch won’t bid for FIFA post out of respect for French rival

Bid
Frankfurt, Dec. 12, 2019 (dpa/NAN) German football federation (DFB) vice-president Rainer Koch on Thursday said he would not seek a place on the FIFA Council because French federation president Noel Le-Graet is bidding as well.

According to him, the DFB and the French federation are very close.

“Looking at the German-French friendship, and out of respect for Le-Graet and his merits in football, it was clear for me to renounce my candidature.”

However, the move has made Le-Graet the only candidate for the FIFA Council seat for the European body UEFA, with the election slated for March 3 at the UEFA Congress in Amsterdam.

DFB president Fritz Keller, however, said the world’s biggest single sport federation with more than six million members would be out to have a place in the FIFA Council in the future.

The DFB also said Koch would run as planned on March 3 for a place on UEFA’s executive committee.

Germany is without representation in the two bodies since Reinhard Grindel resigned as DFB president in 2019 and Le-Graet took his place in the FIFA council.(dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Yahaya Isah/Ali Baba-Inuwa