The DJB has to save almost half a million euros. In the future, there will be two chairmen on the board.
In the face of budget cuts of almost half a million euros, the German Judo Federation has reacted and, in addition to making savings in the area of competitive sports, has also announced a reduction in the size of its management team. On Tuesday, Johannes Karsch joined the board and will now lead the DJB together with Michael Bazynski as co-CEO.
“On the one hand, we have experienced enormous cost increases in recent years, and on the other hand, we now have to make do with considerably less funding,” says association president Thomas Schynol. ”After the separation from Frank Doetsch and the resignation of Malte Geppert at the beginning of the year, the DJB is currently only going to refill one of the two positions.”
The DJB has to make do with 486,000 euros less funding. The competitive sport, for which former national women’s coach Bazynski was responsible, has to plan with savings of almost 200,000 euros for the current season.
Karsch, who was an active judoka for many years and was most recently employed by the company that runs the World University Games, wants to focus on better marketing of the sport. “We want to prove that we are absolutely competitive and, in this sense, also worthy of funding,” said the Schwerin native. ”In addition, however, we need to build up further pillars, further develop our live and streaming events, address new target groups and communicate our enormous added value for society more clearly.”
The DJB is one of the German trade associations that have been particularly affected by funding cuts by the federal government. Among others, the German Athletics Association and the German Badminton Association will have to fight for their international competitiveness in the future with significantly reduced funds.
