Dr Reinhard Rauball

Dr Reinhard Rauball, born in 1946, was elected as a DFL Ehrenpräsident (Honorary President) by the General Assembly of the 36 clubs and limited companies on 21 August 2019. Prior to this, Reinhard Rauball had been the chief representative of German professional football, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DFL GmbH and First Vice President of the German Football Association (DFB) for four terms of office since 7 August 2007, having succeeded the deceased Werner Hackmann and his temporary replacement Wolfgang Holzhäuser. In 2015 and 2019, alongside another First Vice President of the DFB, Dr Rainer Koch, he additionally became joint interim head of the DFB. Reinhard Rauball was also Chairman of the Foundation Board of the DFL Foundation, and on the Executive Committee of the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag (German Protestant Church Congress).

His work for football began in 1979, when he was elected President of Borussia Dortmund, aged just 32. After resigning in 1982, he had a further term of office (1984 to 1986). Since 2004, Reinhard Rauball has been serving a third stint as President of Borussia Dortmund. He rescued the financially embattled club alongside Hans-Joachim Watzke, the current Managing Director.

Born in Northeim, southern Lower Saxony, Reinhard Rauball took his school-leaving exams in Dortmund before studying law at the Ruhr University Bochum, where he obtained his doctorate in 1972. He has been practising as a lawyer in Dortmund since 1975. Since the 1990s, he has built up a reputation in sport law in particular.

_{Photo: Katrin Denkewitz}