Manuel Gräfe reaffirmed his criticism of Herbert Fandel and Hellmut Krug after a 4-hour meeting at the DFB headquarters and demanded further consequences for the two leaders of the German refereeing. He wants to continue to provide information for more justice and transparency. "Unfortunately, the influence of Herbert Fandel and Hellmut Krug still provides the opposite. It is now up to the DFB to make changes", said Gräfe in a personal statement. In a newspaper interviews in August, he had accused Fandel and Krug of nepotism in the selection and appointment of referees. Six weeks ago, he had a personal discussion with the DFB General Secretary Friedrich Curtius and Lutz Michael Fröhlich, the DFB Chairman of the elite referees.
Gräfe participated at the DFB meeting held in Frankfurt, along with the referee spokesperson Felix Brych, Lutz Fröhlich, Herbert Fandel (DFB Referees Committee Chairman), Hellmut Krug (DFB Referee Manager) and Willi Hink (DFB Director). "I was mainly at the DFB to attend the talks of Felix Brych, who has described his similar personal experiences in recent years with Hellmut Krug and Herbert Fandel, as well as being the spokesman for the Bundesliga referees", said Gräfe and stated: "Their attempt to turn the mistakes that they made to personal sensitivities from me or others is wrong". For the time being, the organization will continue as is. "In the almost four-hour conversation, the different views and accusations were addressed in all openness. The impressions from this meeting will be analyzed in the next step", said the DFB Vice-President Ronny Zimmermann, who is responsible for the refereeing.
Source: Berliner Zeitung
