By Simon JenkinsA new governing body to oversee the national team has been formed and is expected to be the most important thing to happen in German football since the end of the Cold War.
The Federation Football Union (DFU) will be formed after the 2019 World Cup, when the country will host the tournament.
The union is expected by the federation to be in place by the end a decade.
In its current form, the federation is still very much a work in progress.
The federation, which will be led by president Dieter Heck, is expected at its first meeting in September.
“We are still a work-in-progress, so we are still working out all the details,” said Hans-Jürgen Ries, a former national team player who was in charge of the national side during the 1990s.
“The task is very difficult but it’s going well,” said Ries.
“It’s a very positive development.
We will now be able to get a sense of what the work is like, the structure, the way things work.”
In the meantime, the German football community is hoping the new body will provide stability.
The country’s football federation was created in 2016 by the governing body FIFA and has had a turbulent history.
Its members include former team members, current coaches, and players who were on the sidelines at the time.
The current head of the German FA, Horst Seehofer, resigned in February, but his successor, Markus Herzog, was named in May to oversee a process to reorganise the governing structure.
The first task will be to form a new committee, with Ries as chairman.
He said the committee will be made up of current players and former coaches, who will have a say on who will represent the new federation in future tournaments.
The new football authority is expected in time for the 2019 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
