Reinhard Rauball (born 25 December 1946) is a German politician, member of the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

, a trained

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

, and football official. He is known for having served as president of

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

several times and also served very briefly as Minister of Justice of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. In addition to currently serving as president of

, he has also been President of the

German Football League The German Football League (GFL) is a professional American football league in Germany. The league was formed in 1979. In 1999, the league changed to its current name from American-Football-Bundesliga.

since August 2007. From November 2015 to April 2016, he was acting President of the

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

along with Rainer Koch. Rauball played football in the late 1960s for Dortmund 95.

Career

Lawyer

Rauball, son of the lawyer Johannes Rauball, studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began ...

and earned his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

there in 1971. He has worked as a lawyer at a legal firm in Dortmund since 1976. In the 1990s and 2000s he made a name for himself in particular as a sports lawyer, where he represented

Katrin Krabbe Katrin Krabbe (; later Zimmermann; born 22 November 1969) is a German former track and field athlete. She represented East Germany (GDR) at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and went on to win the 100 metres and 200 metres titles at the 1991 World Cham ...

Nicole Uphoff Nicole Uphoff (born 25 January 1967) is a German equestrian who competes in the sport of dressage. She won four gold medals in individual and team competition at the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics. Riding her star horse, Rembrandt, Uphoff also won ...

and Graciano Rocchigiani as well as many dismissed managers from Bundesliga football clubs.

Politician

Rauball was Minister of Justice for

from 1 March 1999 to 8 March 1999 under Minister-President Wolfgang Clement. After just one week following his appointment to the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

, he was forced to resign because he had become a member of the supervisory board of US-based Eurogas in 1994 without applying for approval as required by German law.

Football official

Since 14 November 2004, Rauball has been President of

, serving his third term in that capacity. Together with Gerd Pieper and Reinhold Lunow, he forms the board of BVB. In his first term of office as president, from 1979 to 1982, as a 32-year-old he was the youngest president in Bundesliga history. He also served as president from 1984 to 1986. He is regarded as the saviour of BVB because he saved the team from bankruptcy in each of his terms as president, most recently in 2005 and 2006 in co-operation with the two managers

Hans-Joachim Watzke Hans-Joachim "Aki" Watzke (born 21 June 1959, Marsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German businessman and football official. He served as the CEO of Borussia Dortmund. Background Hans-Joachim Watzke watched his first games at the Rote Erde as ...

and Thomas Treß. Rauball succeeded the deceased Werner Hackmann as president of the

in August 2007. As the only candidate, he was unanimously elected with the votes of all 36 professional clubs. He was unanimously re-elected on 18 August 2010 and on 7 August 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rauball, Reinhard 1946 births Living people German football chairmen and investors Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians