DFB presidential candidate Peter Peters not ruling out future role for Uli Hoeneß

Could former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeneß move into a role with the DFB?

This March, there will be elections to determine who the new president of the DFB will be, taking over for the role previously occupied by Fritz Keller. Peter Peters, who currently serves as the first vice president and interim president alongside Rainer Koch is one of the leading candidates alongside Bernd Neuendorf and they were both unanimously voted in favor for to be candidates by the Westphalian Football and Athletics Association towards the end of last year.

Hoeneß has often been recommended for a potential role on the DFB’s executive board along with former CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, to which they’ve both been quick to downplay. However, Peter Peters feels differently. He genuinely believes that Hoeneß would be a more than ideal candidate to assume a role with the DFB, especially if he’s elected president this March and can have the opportunity to work alongside him.

“I can basically imagine everything. Good, experienced and also critical spirits are always good for us and the DFB. I wrote him a personal letter for his 70th birthday, but unfortunately I don’t know Uli Hoeneß’ life plan,” Peters recently said to SportBild (via az). Peters’ sentiment is all well and good, but Hoeneß hasn’t exactly spoken to kindly of the DFB in recent years and has actually been quite vocal with his criticism. The mishaps and and mishandlings by the organization as a whole have been on full display within the past couple of years and it’s no secret that it’s needed revamping for as long.

Hoeneß had recently taken a bit of a dig at the DFB during an interview with ZDF. “There used to be the DFB. At the moment it doesn’t exist for me. It doesn’t exist. It’s just a quarreling bunch that only deals with itself, but not with the problems of German football,” he complained, adding that it should change it’s name to the “Deutsche Streit-Gesellschaft (German Dispute Society).”

Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

At least for the short term future, with Hoeneß’ obvious disdain for the DFB, it’s not too likely that he will agree to take on a position, but that could certainly change. Even though he’s no longer on Bayern’s executive board, he’s still on the supervisory board and is able to weigh in on certain decisions with his own opinion(s). He’s not one to shy away from speaking his mind and there might come a time when he feels inspired enough to change the DFB from within to what he feels it should be. For now, though, that is purely speculation.

Regardless of future involvement from Hoeneß, Peters is confident that all of the personnel ready to assume roles after March’s elections are more than ready to right all of the wrongs that currently exist. “They know all the problems of the DFB from the point of view of the 21 regional associations and are ready to tackle them with me,” he recently said (SPOX).