The new president will be elected for a four-year term and will be officially elected on 17 October at the annual general meeting in Welden. His most important tasks include the final determination of the construction of the new OFB office and training centre.
The future head of the biggest sports federation will also have to deal with the question of team bosses, as Franco Foda counts on following recent World Cup qualifying defeats against Israel and Scotland. Miletich and Schmid apply for office with different needs.
Hearing about the FB presidency
The question of FB president Leo Windner’s successor will be clarified during a candidate hearing in Salzburg on Saturday. The chairman of the election committee, Wolfgang Bartosch, anticipates an exciting duel between the two candidates Roland Schmidt and Gerhard Miletich.
Boss from Burgenland
Miletich has been the head of the Burgenland Regional Federation since March 2012 and is therefore also a member of the OFB Presidium. Until a year and a half ago, the 65-year-old was the president of the football club in his home town of Parndorf. He led the club for a total of 27 years, three of which played in the Paerndorf Second Division. Unlike Schmid, Miletich can point to many years of experience at the official level, especially in amateur and grassroots football – a not insignificant advantage in FB.
Both presidential candidates are engaged as entrepreneurs in the civilian profession. Miletich acquired Bohmann-Verlag in 2004 and is thus the managing director of a company with 120 employees and an annual turnover of approximately 30 million euros. Burgenlander is married and his daughter is now closely involved in the company’s operations management.
candidates from outside
Schmidt is considered an outside candidate. Born in Vienna in the spring of 2004, he co-founded Lexunited, the currently authorized clearing house of the Republic of Austria for queries in federal databases. In 2007 Schmid founded the company IMMOunited, with which he also sponsors sports (BK Dukes, FC Klosterneuburg, FB, Vienna Capitals and First Vienna FC). The 45-year-old is an avid Rapids fan and wanted to become president of the Green-Whites in 2019, but lost the highly regarded election against Martin Brueckner. After a while he withdrew from Hatteldorfer as donor.
Start-up millionaires can count on the support of the regional associations of Salzburg and Tyrol, for which Lower Austria Miletich is involved in the camp. In some regional associations, however, voting behavior is still open – for example in Vorarlberg, which could potentially tip the scales.
Bundesliga role
On the other hand, there is little chance of Bundesliga playing a decisive role. Like every national association, the league has one vote in the election committee, but four votes in the official presidential election in the general assembly. The Bundesliga could therefore exert much influence, but according to Styrian association boss Wolfgang Bartosch, chairman of the electoral committee, it will hold back.
“It has already been indicated that the decision of the Election Committee will be supported and there will be no scenario in which the Election Committee is to be overturned. There will certainly not be two candidates at the general meeting,” Bartosh clarified to the APA.
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