By Mark Baber
December 23 – Nothing succeeds like success and German Football Association (DFB) president, Wolfgang Niersbach has channeled the sense of triumph following his countries World Cup triumph, laying out an “ambitious” 10-year plan to keep Germany at the centre of world football.
With Germans having bought 3 million Adidas national team shirts over the last year and sales booming for the new version with the fourth star, Niersbach has christened his plan ‘DFB 2024’ with the ultimate target being for German to be crowned European champion on home soil in 2024.
”The year behind us was extraordinary but it shouldn’t be the only one,” Niersbach said. ”We are not going to rest on our laurels. That’s why we’ve set out a 10-year plan.”
The plan includes a new football museum in Dortmund and a world class new €89 million academy in Frankfurt which is being described as a ‘cathedral’ of the DFB, despite concerns that objections by local residents could yet derail it.
Germans haven’t been shy about rubbing their old rivals nose in it either, with Felix Magath opining that: “Unlike Germany, who’ve enjoyed success for 50 years, the English haven’t had any success in 50 years.”
The extent of the DFB’s ambitions, as intimated by the ‘Der Spiegel’ with tongue firmly in cheek, naturally include picking up a fifth star in Russia, the World Cup in Qatar, the 2016 European Championships, Olympic titles and the women’s titles along the way to the inevitable 2024 triumph.
Or as expressed by Germany coach Joachim: ”We want to leave our mark on an entire era.”
On top of these lofty ambitions, Niersbach is personally standing for a seat on the Executive Committee of FIFA, where he aims to “help to turn the image of FIFA for the better” and to fashion it into an institution which stands for “absolute trustworthiness and integrity.”
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