End of the ÖFB hunt

Mitterdorfer showed greatness, Rangnick unfortunately not!

Klaus Mitterdorfer, Ralf Rangnick

(Bild: GEPA, krone.at-mrgrafik)

ÖFB President Klaus Mitterdorfer resigned yesterday with immediate effect. The reasons for his resignation were weeks of undercutting and a lack of approval for his CEO candidate. The Carinthian showed greatness, team boss Ralf Rangnick unfortunately did not! A commentary by Christian Reichel.

The mud-slinging in the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) culminated yesterday in the resignation of the president: After 16 months in office, Mitterdorfer threw in the towel.

The weeks-long smear campaign had worn him down, plus the impression that he would not be able to push through his proposal for the new CEO of the ÖFB at the Executive Committee meeting scheduled for today in Vienna: The necessary seven votes for lawyer Silvia Kaupa-Götzl seemed a long way off - so Mitterdorfer decided to withdraw in the evening.

The Carinthian also showed greatness in his departure
The Executive Committee meeting has since been canceled, and the next meeting on November 29 will decide which of the four Vice Presidents will follow Mitterdorfer until the next Annual General Meeting - planned for May 2025. The Carinthian also showed greatness in his departure: he referred to the stressful situation for his family due to the constant attacks, thanked the employees in the ÖFB and "all constructive forces that work in the interests of soccer in Austria at all levels and in all functions".

Rangnick told an untruth in connection with Mitterdorfer
Team boss Rangnick was no longer one of them in recent weeks: The team boss took a few opportunities to make the president or the ÖFB look bad. The trigger was the dismissal of managing director Bernhard Neuhold in October, which the German in particular refused to acknowledge and also told an untruth in connection with Mitterdorfer - he did not show the courage to apologize to him for it.

Klaus Mitterdorfer and Ralf Rangnick

(Bild: GEPA, krone.at-mrgrafik)

A toxic cocktail that caused Mitterdorfer to resign
Then there are the usual suspects in the executive committee, who have been having fun sawing away at the president's chair for years - no matter what his name is. A toxic cocktail that made Mitterdorfer resign. He left behind a structural reform that had been initiated to massively reduce the influence of the presidium and bring real experts to the forefront.

Another bombshell dropped in the evening
What remains of this will become clear in the coming months, as will whether the dismissals of Neuhold and second managing director Thomas Hollerer will remain in place. It is to be expected that the posts of CEO and the two new managing directors will now be advertised publicly. In the evening, another bombshell was dropped: Georg Pangl, the president of the Burgenland association, also resigned following internal accusations - he is also leaving the ÖFB presidium.

Today, at 12 noon, Austria will find out its opponent in the Nations League play-off in March 2025 - it will be one of the quartet of Belgium, Hungary, Serbia and Scotland.