Wolfgang Holzhäuser

• DFL Honorary Member
• Former Chairman of the DFL Licensing Committee
• Former 1st Vice-President of the German Football Association (DFB)

Wolfgang Holzhäuser, born in Crumstadt, southern Hesse in 1950, has been an Ehrenangehöriger (Honorary Member) of the DFL since 2013. He was Vice President from 2004 to 2007, and had a short spell as Acting President of the Ligaverband (now the Executive Committee of the DFL) in 2007 following the death of Werner Hackmann. In addition, he served as Chairman of the DFL Licensing Committee and First Vice President of the German Football Association (DFB). Throughout his 23 years at the DFB from 1975, the business studies graduate was instrumental in the constant evolution of the licensing process for the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. Most recently, as league secretary, he was responsible for organising and handling all licensed football, which was still entirely under the umbrella at the DFB at the time. At the DFB, alongside Wilfried Straub, Wolfgang Holzhäuser ultimately laid the foundations for securing the independence of German professional football at the end of 2000.

From 1998 to 2013, he served as Managing Director of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, initially in tandem with Reiner Calmund until mid-2004, and as Chairman of the Executive Board. Wolfgang Holzhäuser was a member of the club’s Shareholders’ Committee until 2017.

_{Photo: Getty Images/Thomas Starke}