In November 2016 the German Football Association named Jürgen Klinsmann the fifth Ehrenspielführer, honorary captain, of the men’s national team. The four before him were Fritz Walter, Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer and Lothar Matthäus.
In November 2025 the association named three more honorary captains of its men’s and women’s teams: Bernard Dietz, Silvia Neid and, after her death, Doris Fitschen. It cited their outstanding sporting achievements and their exemplary conduct.
On 6 March 2019, FC Bayern Munich published a statement on national coach Joachim Löw’s decision to stop selecting Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels and Jérôme Boateng. It said that the selection of the squad liegt ausschließlich in der Verantwortung von Joachim Löw, lies solely in the responsibility of Joachim Löw.
But the club called the timing and the circumstances in which the decision was announced to the players and to the public fragwürdig, questionable.
In 2001 German football decided that every Bundesliga club must run a youth academy, a Leistungszentrum. Since the 2007/08 season the academies have been certified by the agency Double PASS. The audit divides everything that works in an academy into eight dimensions, among them organization and procedures. Effectiveness and permeability is one of the eight.
The auditors look at how the work is actually done. Wir suchen nach Arbeitsdokumenten, nicht nach eigens für uns gefertigten Unterlagen. We look for working documents, not for papers made especially for us. Uns geht es um Implementierung. What matters to us is implementation.
Before the 2024 European Championship, the national coach Julian Nagelsmann told Mats Hummels that he would not be in the squad. Hummels later described the talk to the newspaper Sport Bild: Nicht einmal zwei Minuten. Not even two minutes.
He called it short and disappointing. Then he added: Ich brauche in solchen Momenten aber auch kein langes Gespräch und keine große Erklärung. Das hat mir gereicht. But in such moments I need no long talk and no big explanation. That was enough for me. As he understood it, the reasons were related to age, such as fitness.
In December 2025 the German Olympic Sports Confederation submitted a statement to the sports committee of the Bundestag. A large part of the time that volunteers give to sport, it said, is now used up in overcoming bureaucratic hurdles.
The statement named time as the main reason volunteers stop. It described clubs that struggle with bureaucracy, a lack of support and outdated facilities.
A racing license alone does not let a driver race on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring. From the 2015 season, the DMSB Permit Nordschleife became mandatory for all participants in the VLN endurance races and the 24-hour race. Its stated aim is more safety on the track, especially for newcomers. Auto Bild called it the Nordschleifenführerschein, the Nordschleife driving license. It has two grades. Grade B, for less powerful cars, comes first. Only drivers who can show results from at least two races receive grade A. Drivers who have not raced on the track for five years must qualify again. In September 2025, the Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen went through the same steps. He first completed the theory and guided laps for grade B. On 13 September, he raced a restricted Porsche Cayman to collect the 14 laps needed for grade A. But his second entry car did not complete a full lap in the race after a crash in practice. One required result for grade A was missing, and he had to hope the DMSB would make an exception. After he received the permit, he started in a Ferrari 296 GT3 on 27 September.
A member of a German shooting club, a Schießsportverein, may buy a firearm only after a year of proven practice. Section 14 of the Weapons Act sets the conditions. For most firearms, the applicant must be at least 21. The shooting federation must certify that the member has practiced the sport in a club with firearms that require a permit for at least twelve months. Within those twelve months, the member must have shot once in every full month, or 18 times in total. As a rule, a sport shooter may buy no more than two firearms within six months. Above three semi-automatic long guns and two multi-shot handguns, the bar rises again. The federation must certify that the shooter needs the extra gun for the sport and has taken part regularly in shooting competitions.
A head coach in the Bundesliga or the second Bundesliga needs a valid coaching license under the licensing rules of the German Football League, the DFL. The DFB’s Fußball-Lehrer-Lizenz, the football teacher license, is valid for three years. To renew it, a coach must show 20 hours of further training. In January 2020, Jürgen Klinsmann was head coach of Hertha BSC Berlin. He had won the World Cup in 1990 and had been national coach. He had earned his license in 2000 in a special DFB course. The DFL now stated that proof of a valid license was missing. Klinsmann said: An Weihnachten habe ich die Unterlagen schlichtweg vergessen, at Christmas I simply forgot the documents. He had to submit proof of the training courses he had completed. The license was then renewed, and he could coach the team against Bayern Munich.
The German Football League, the DFL, has a protocol for head injuries in the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. The form has signature lines for the club, the head coach, the person responsible for sport and the team doctor. The examination and treatment of a player on the pitch may take up to three minutes. Die Entscheidung obliegt allein dem/der Mannschaftsarzt/-ärztin. The decision rests with the team doctor alone. Trainer/-in, Schiedsrichter/-in und Spieler dürfen die Beurteilung und Entscheidung des Arztes/der Ärztin nicht beeinflussen. The coach, the referee and the player may not influence the doctor’s assessment and decision. The player may go on only if the doctor expressly confirms that he is able to. If a concussion cannot be ruled out, he takes no further part in the match.
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eight members of the Palestinian terror group Black September attacked the Israeli men’s team. They shot two Israelis and took nine athletes hostage. The hostage-taking began early on 5 September and lasted about 20 hours. A political crisis staff on site worked to end it. Its members included the federal interior minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the Bavarian interior minister Bruno Merk, Munich’s police chief Manfred Schreiber and the head of the organizing committee, Willi Daume. In the night to 6 September, a failed rescue attempt by the Bavarian police ended in disaster. All hostages, one police officer and five Palestinians died. A 2022 article by Eva Oberloskamp, published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, describes the crisis management. The decision-makers konnten sich auf keine klar definierten Verantwortungs- und Entscheidungsfindungsstrukturen stützen, could rely on no clearly defined structures of responsibility and decision-making. The Bundeswehr had trained snipers, but German law did not allow it to be deployed. The police officers sent to Fürstenfeldbruck had evidently been inadequately trained. The GSG 9, a new police special unit, was founded in direct response to the attack. The legislative process was launched on 26 September 1972. In April 1973 Ulrich Wegener, the officer charged with setting it up, reported the unit ready for action.