Ex-Vice Chancellor Josef Pröll becomes new ÖFB Chief
The search for a new ÖFB head ended with a big surprise. The election committee of the football association agreed on Wednesday evening after about a three-and-a-half-hour meeting in a Vienna hotel on former Vice Chancellor Josef Pröll as the successor to interim president Wolfgang Bartosch. Pröll will be elected on May 18 at the federal general assembly in Bregenz and then - provided the structural reform is decided as expected - will act as chairman of the supervisory board.
Pröll Informed About Goals
The 56-year-old former ÖVP leader was not present at the meeting, as the election committee chairman Martin Mutz explained. "He is currently at a panel discussion in the EU Parliament. Unfortunately, we missed the time window to connect him," said the Carinthian state association president.
However, Pröll had already communicated his primary goals in advance. "In the first step, it is mainly about strengthening unity outwardly and bringing a certain calm into the ÖFB," reported Mutz, who had a first exchange with Pröll 14 days ago according to his own statements. "He was proposed by a member of the election committee (Note: the nine state presidents plus Philip Thonhauser from the Bundesliga) and was then contacted by me. He was very pleased about it and considered it an honor," explained Mutz.
Pröll Designated ÖFB Head
There was no opposing vote for Pröll in the election, emphasized Mutz. He did not want to confirm or deny that some members abstained. Other candidates were Hartberg President Brigitte Annerl, Sturm Graz President Christian Jauk, and Burgenland's state association president Johannes Wutzlhofer. The latter will be elected as vice-chairman of the supervisory board in Bregenz, according to Mutz. The league provides the second deputy, but no decision has been made yet.
Pröll became the federal party chairman of the ÖVP in November 2008 and finance minister and vice chancellor in December 2008. After a pulmonary embolism, he announced his withdrawal from all political offices in April 2011. Since 2014, the designated ÖFB head has been the general director of the Leipnik-Lundenburger group, which belongs to the Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien. Pröll - vice president of Wiener Austria from 2018 to 2021 - is the first ÖFB boss since the former lottery boss Friedrich Stickler, who served from 2002 to 2008, who does not come from the ÖFB presidency.
(APA/Red)
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