Mintzlaff wants to follow Watzke: Hertha through back door into ECA

Max Eberl (r), Sports Director of RB Leipzig and Oliver Mintzlaff, Managing Director, Red Bull GmbH, after the match. / Photo: Tom Weller/dpa

In the billion-dollar business of European club soccer, Oliver Mintzlaff wants to have an even greater say in the future. The former managing director of RB Leipzig and current member of the board of Red Bull GmbH is running for a seat on the board of the European Club Association (ECA). There, the 48-year-old would like to succeed Borussia Dortmund's Hans-Joachim Watzke, who, as announced, is giving up his ECA mandate after moving into the UEFA Executive Committee.

The decision on Mintzlaff's involvement in the highest ECA body will be made on Thursday at the association's elections in Berlin. Already on Wednesday, the representatives of Europe's top clubs will meet in a posh hotel in the capital right next to the Zoologischer Garten.

Mintzlaff's candidacy is not uncomplicated. Actually, only club representatives are allowed to sit on the ECA board who are involved in the day-to-day business of a club. MIntzlaff is no longer that with his promotion to the Red Bull board, but he is still a member of the supervisory board of the Leipzig Bundesliga soccer club - this formal bridge should suffice. It is considered certain that Bayern Munich's CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen will succeed Oliver Kahn at the ECA.

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"We hope that both Jan Dreesen and Oliver Mintzlaff will be voted in. Then we would be the only country with three board members," Bayer Leverkusen's managing director Fernando Carro told Deutsche Presse-Agentur on the sidelines of the Europa League draw last week in Monaco. Carro has already secured his ECA seat. In the Principality, Mintzlaff had also held numerous talks with other club officials at a gala at the Sporting Club overlooking the Mediterranean.

Indirectly, German soccer could get a fourth representative on the ECA board from men's soccer - and that's through Hertha BSC, the crisis club of the 2nd division. Joshua Wander, head of Berlin-based investor 777 Partners, is running to represent Belgian club Standard Liege, which, like Hertha, is part of the U.S. company's portfolio. Michael Meeske of VfL Wolfsburg is also up for election in the so-called women's soccer subcategory.

ECA board