TheGerman Football Association (German:Deutscher Fußball-Bund[ˈdɔʏtʃɐˈfuːsbalˌbʊnt];DFB[ˌdeːʔɛfˈbeː]ⓘ) is the governing body offootball,futsal, andbeach soccer inGermany. A founding member of bothFIFA andUEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for theGerman football league system and is in charge of themen's andwomen's national teams. The DFB headquarters are inFrankfurt am Main. Sole members of the DFB are theGerman Football League (German:Deutsche Fußball Liga;DFL), organising the professionalBundesliga and the2. Bundesliga, along with five regional and 21 state associations, organising the semi-professional and amateur levels. The 21 state associations of the DFB have a combined number of 23,868 clubs with little more than 8 million members, making the DFB the single largest sports federation in the world.
First logo of the DFB from 1900 to 1926Commemorative plaque in Leipzig where the DFB was founded in 1900.Individual logo from 1911Logo from 1926 to 1995Logo from 1995 to 2003Logo from 2003 to 2008Logo from 2008 to 2016Logo from 2016 to 2025Logo since 2025
From 1875 to the mid-1880s, the first kind of football played in Germany was according torugby rules. Later,association-style football teams formed separate clubs, and since 1890, they began to organise on regional and national levels.
The DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund) was founded on 28 January 1900 inLeipzig by representatives of86 clubs. The vote held to establish the association was 62:22 in favour (84 votes). Some delegates present represented more than one club, but may have voted only once. Other delegates present did not carry their club's authority to cast a ballot.Ferdinand Hueppe, the representative of DFC Prague, was named its first president.[1] The DFB consolidated the large number of state-based German regional competitions in play for a single recognized national title for the season 1902/03. Germans were not present in Paris when FIFA was founded by seven nations in May 1904, but by the time the FIFA statutes came into effect on 1 September, Germany had also joined by telegram as the eighth nation. TheGerman national team played its first game in 1908.
Before 1914, theGerman Empire was much larger than today's Germany, comprisingAlsace-Lorraine and theeastern provinces. The borders of the regional associations were drawn according to suitable railway connections. Also, teams based inBohemia, then part ofAustria-Hungary, were eligible, as they were German Football clubs and thus considered German. Thus, a German team fromPrague was runner-up in the German championship. On the other hand, clubs of theDanish minority inNorthern Schleswig refused to join the DFB. This area after World War I voted to join Denmark. Due to border changes imposed by theTreaty of Versailles, the DFB had to adapt its structure. TheSaarland,Danzig, and theMemelland were detached from Germany andEast Prussia was cut off from the main part by thePolish Corridor.
The role of DFB and its representatives likeFelix Linnemann underNazi Germany was documented in100 Jahre DFB and by Nils Havemann inFußball unterm Hakenkreuz.[2] According toGleichschaltung policy, the DFB, with its large membership from all political sides, and strong regional structures compared to weak national ones, submitted to new rulers and newGau structures. On a short general meeting on 9 July 1933 in Berlin, the DFB did so, at least formally.
Later, theHitler salute was made compulsory;Marxists andJews were expelled. The records ofGerman Jews were erased from the DFB's records, such as those ofGottfried Fuchs who had scored a world record ten goals for Germany in a 16–0 win againstRussia at the1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, becoming the top scorer of the tournament and setting an international record.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] When, in 1972, German former player and national team coachSepp Herberger asked the German Football Association vice presidentHermann Neuberger to invite Fuchs as a guest or a guest of honour to an international against Russia on the 60th anniversary of Fuchs' performance for the German team, the DFB Executive Committee declined to do so, writing that it was not willing to invite Fuchs because it would have created an unfortunate precedent (as was pointed out, given that Fuchs was the last remaining former Jewish German international, the DFB's concern about creating a precedent was a difficult one to understand).[9][10] As of 2016, Fuchs was still the top German scorer for one match.[7]
A new organization,Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (German Reich League for Physical Exercise), was established and Linnemann was appointed leader of itsFachamt Fußball (Football section), which took over the operational affairs, whereas the DFB lost most of its duties until it was formally dissolved in 1940.
On the pitch, Germany had done well in 1934, but after a 0–2 loss to Norway in the quarter finals of the1936 Summer Olympics, withAdolf Hitler attending, the DFB and football fell from grace.ReichsjugendführerBaldur von Schirach and theHitler Youth took over youth football (under 16) from the clubs following a deal withReichssportführerHans von Tschammer und Osten, who had been in charge of all sports in Germany since 1933, making DFB officials even more powerless. Germany had made a bid to host the1938 World Cup, but it was withdrawn without comment.
Following theAnschluss in March 1938 that madeAustria part of Germany, theAustrian Football Association became part of the German federation. New coachSepp Herberger was told on short notice to use also Austrian players in his team, which was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup, weakening the situation of football within the Nazi politics to near meaninglessness. Four Germans (Hans Jakob,Albin Kitzinger, Ludwig Goldbrunner, and Ernst Lehner) represented West Europe in a FIFA friendly on 20 June 1937 inAmsterdam, and another two (Kitzinger again andAnderl Kupfer) represented a FIFA continental team on 26 October 1938 inLondon, England. During the war, Germany played international games until 1942.
In the aftermath ofWorld War II, German organisations were disbanded by the allies.FIFA decided in November 1945 to ban the no longer existing DFB (andJapan'sfootball association) from international competition, while the Austrian association was re-founded. Internationally, Germans were still represented, withZürich-basedIvo Schricker serving as General Secretary of FIFA from 1932 to December 1950. In 1948, Switzerland requested FIFA to lift the ban on games against Germans, but this was denied. Swiss clubs played German clubs anyway, but had to cease doing so due to international protests. This was only changed in 1949 whenThe Football Association requested FIFA to lift the ban on club games. FIFA did so on 7 May 1949, two weeks before theFederal Republic of Germany was founded, thus games required permission by the military governments of the time.Due to partition into several occupation zones, and states, the DFB was legally re-founded inStuttgart on 21 January 1950 only by the West German regional associations, without theSaarland Football Association in theFrench occupied Saarland, which on 12 June 1950 would be recognized by FIFA as the first of three German FAs after the war. At the FIFA congress held on 22 June prior to the1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, theSwiss Football Association requested that the DFB be reinstated with full FIFA membership, which was granted on 22 September 1950[11] in Brussels. Thus, Germany was excluded from the1950 FIFA World Cup and could resume international games only in late 1950.
In the early years of thedivision of Germany, West Germany claimedexclusive mandate of all of Germany. Unlike theIOC, which granted only provisional recognition to the East Germans in 1955, demanding they participate in an All-German Olympic team (United Team of Germany), FIFA fully recognized theEast German Football Association in 1952. Winning the1954 World Cup was a major success for the DFB, and the popularity of the sport in Germany.
The teams of the DFB and the Saarland played against one another in thequalifiers for the 1954 World Cup before the Saarland and its FA were permitted to rejoin Germany and the DFB in 1956.
Due to that success, and due to regional associations fearing loss of influence, the old amateur structure, in which five regional leagues formed the top level, remained in effect longer than in many other countries, even though aReichsliga had been proposed decades ago. Also, professionalism was rejected, and players who played abroad were considered "mercenaries" and not capped. The conservative attitude changed only after disappointing results in the1962 FIFA World Cup when officials like the 75-year-oldPeco Bauwens retired. According to the proposals of Hermann Neuberger, the DFB finally introduced a single nationwide professional league, the Bundesliga, for the 1963–64 season.
The DFB has hosted the World Cup in1974 and2006. Germany also hosted the European Championship in1988 as well as in2024. Upon reunification in 1990, the East GermanDeutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR (DFV) was absorbed into the DFB along its honours.
The national team won the World Cup for a second time in 1974, a third time in1990, and a fourth in the2014 FIFA World Cup. Also, they were crowned European champions three times, in 1972, in 1980 and in 1996. On top, theMannschaft were runners-up in the 1966, 1982, 1986 and 2002 World Cups and in 1976, 1992 and 2008 European Championships, making it the second-most successful national team in the world as well as the most successful national team in Europe.
The DFB has also overseen the rise of Germany as a world power inwomen's football. Thenational team has wonWorld Cups in2003 and2007—the latter without conceding a goal in the final tournament, making them the only World Cup champions for men or women to do so. Furthermore, the women's national team's victory in 2003 made Germany the only nation to have won both the Men's and Women's World Cups, untilSpain achieved the same milestone in2023.[12] They have also won eightUEFA Women's Championships, including the last six in succession.
In 1990, mere months before reunification became official, the DFB founded thewomen's Bundesliga (Frauen-Bundesliga), directly modelled after the men's Bundesliga. Initially, it was played in north and south divisions but became a single league in 1997. Bundesliga teams have enjoyed more success in theUEFA Women's Champions League than those from any other nation; four different clubs have won a total of nine titles, with the most recent being2015 champions1. FFC Frankfurt, now known as Eintracht Frankfurt.
The main criticisms of the DFB are the lack of transparency and the commercialization of football, which has been strongly promoted by DFB officials.
Christian Prechtl, from the fan organization FC PlayFair!, mentioned that the growing unpopularity of themen's national team is "just a perfect example of what can happen when you have the fans out of sight".[16][17]
Direct members of the DFB are only its five regional associations and its 21 state associations, along with theGerman Football League, whereas the clubs participating in theGerman football league system are members of the state associations covering their district. Today, more than 25,000 clubs are organised in those state associations, fielding nearly 170,000 teams with over two million active players and totalling over six million members, the largest membership of any single sports federation in the world. The Association governs 870,000 male members and 8,600 female teams.
DFB, its five regional and 21 state associations100 year commemorative stamp from 2000
The DFB is organised into five regional associations, which themselves are sub-divided into 21 state associations. These associations typically have their boundaries run along the borders of the Germanstates, with the exception of some states (North Rhine-Westphalia,Rhineland-Palatinate, andBaden-Württemberg) having up to three state associations covering different areas of such state.
TheSouthern German Football Association (German:Süddeutscher Fußball-Verband;SFV) covers the states ofBaden-Württemberg,Bavaria andHesse. TheSFV, formed on 17 October 1897 under the name ofVerband Süddeutscher Fußball-Vereine, originally administered theSouthern German football championship, until it was dissolved by the Nazis in 1933. Reformed in theAmerican occupation zone after the Second World War, it operated theOberliga Süd, the regional division of the former top level GermanOberliga until the introduction of theBundesliga in 1963. Since the 2012–13 season, theSFV, except its member Bavarian FA, along with theFootball Association of the Southwest is in charge of theRegionalliga Südwest, a step 4 division in theGerman football league system. TheSFV itself is formed by the following state associations:[18]
DFB Administration is located inFrankfurt (Main). It is headed by Secretary GeneralFriedrich Curtius and managing directors Heike Ullrich (Deputy Secretary General),Oliver Bierhoff and Markus Holzherr.
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