Strengthening voluntary work has not only been identified as a fundamental issue for the future in Berlin soccer. It is a challenge for society as a whole, and the German Football Association (DFB) is also very aware of its importance. "Amateur soccer is one of the central components of our new strategic direction at the DFB. We want to strengthen the master plan," emphasized DFB President Bernd Neuendorf in his welcoming address at the BFV Association Congress. "When it comes to infrastructure, we often talk about bridges and roads - that may also be important. But we also have a social infrastructure in Germany and volunteering is the most important part of this. If this infrastructure were to break down, it would become very cold in our country."

In addition to Bernd Neuendorf, Ronny Zimmermann (1st DFB Vice President for Amateurs/Regional and State Associations), Thomas Härtel (President of the Berlin State Sports Association), Hermann Winkler (NOFV President and DFB Vice President for Youth Football), Till Dahlitz (NOFV Managing Director) and Jens Kaden (President of the Brandenburg State Football Association) were among the guests of honor who accepted the BFV's invitation to the Evangelical Free Church in Schöneberg.

In his welcoming address, Thomas Härtel also spoke about the "social infrastructure" of Berlin's club system, but also clearly named the glaring structural challenges in the capital: "We have waiting lists in the clubs, children who cannot be accepted. We have an infrastructural problem in Berlin, particularly with regard to uncovered sports facilities. That's why we're calling on politicians: we need to consider sports facilities when planning new neighborhoods and building schools and daycare centers."

Härtel campaigned for the popular initiative "The Games for Berlin"which supports a Berlin bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and sets out five goals for sport. These include the creation of a fund for grassroots sport, in particular personnel and infrastructural support. The Berlin Football Association supports the initiative and calls on its members to participate in the collection of signatures.

The LSB President also had words of praise for the recently published scientific study recently published by the BFV on coming to terms with its Nazi past"In view of current social developments, it is all the more important to set an example against anti-democratic tendencies."

Before the representatives of the Berlin soccer clubs voted on the motions for the BFV Association Day and thus opened the debate on the content, the tribute to the recently deceased members of the Berlin soccer family (see obituaries) and particularly committed volunteers on the agenda.

The following people received an award for their extraordinary commitment to Berlin soccer at the Ordinary Association Day:

• Badge of Honor of the LSB: Michaela Walczak
• Badge of Honor of the BFV: Uwe Brummer, Lisa Marie Großer
• BFV badge of honor in gold: Edmund Will, Peter Heß, Kurt Schmidtkowski, Andreas Ott, Günter Stolinski, Detlef Köhler, Doris Brachmann, Jan Schlüschen-Hesterberg, Alexander Molzahn, Ralph Rose
• Appointment to the BFV Council of Elders: Ralph Rose, Hans-Jürgen Watteroth
• BFV honorary membership: Mehmet Matur

Applications for honoring deserving club members can be submitted to the BFV at any time by e-mail to personal@spam.berlinerfv.de at any time.

In his welcoming speech at the beginning of the event, BFV President Bernd Schultz had already emphasized the importance of constructive debates at the Association Congress and stressed that the aim was to find solutions in a fair and comradely manner. The first such discussion finally took place under agenda item seven, "Debate on the reports". It was Bernd Fiedler (SFC Stern 1900) who kicked off the debate with an appeal for the association and the clubs to take the recently discontinued Football Week (to the background) should not be abandoned. Jens Maedler (Tennis Borussia Berlin) called for at least the FuWo archive to be preserved: "It's a treasure that lies dormant." Meanwhile, Gerd Thomas (FC Internationale) called for quick and targeted action: "I think it is possible to bring FuWo back to life, but then we have to take the reins of action now and we have to clarify who will take over responsibility before we have weaned ourselves off FuWo." The unity of the Berlin clubs in this matter was also demonstrated by an ad hoc opinion poll in which the majority of the meeting raised their hands in favor of an initiative to save FuWo. A working group under the leadership of Bernd Fiedler had already come together before the Ordinary Association Congress and will continue to pursue the issue.

The conference presidium, consisting of Jürgen Schepers (conference president), Dirk Zimmermann (BFV vice-president for legal affairs) and Kevin Langner (BFV managing director) then led through the voting on the motions to the statutes and regulations as well as initiative and urgent motions (all voting results in the overview). Motion no. 2 to reduce the voting rights of the BFV Presidium at the Association Congress (aim of the motion: one joint vote for the entire committee instead of one vote per Presidium member) resulted in more detailed comments. For example, the applicant criticized the overrepresentation of the presidium compared to the clubs, which are each represented with only one vote at the BFV General Assembly. This was particularly noticeable when only a small proportion of the clubs attended the Association Day. This point was taken up in the counter-argument and combined with the appeal that the willingness to participate in the BFV general meetings must increase. Motion no. 2 was ultimately rejected, as was an amendment with the aim of only granting one vote to each member of the Executive Presidium (gfP), but not to the other Presidium members. The argument put forward against the latter was that restricting voting rights to the gfP would de facto result in the withdrawal of votes for committee topics, such as refereeing or women's and girls' soccer.

The motions to the statutes (No. 3a-e), which sought to convert the existing regional conferences into district conferences, were also discussed unanimously. "The regional conferences do not work. But we as clubs are the association and we have to get involved. We must therefore succeed in finding a solution here," Christian Haberecht opened the debate on behalf of the North-East Regional Conference. "Each individual district has completely different requirements, also in terms of cooperation with the district offices, which is why the motion is to be supported," added Jürgen Martens for the South-East Regional Conference, which had submitted the motion together with the North-East Regional Conference. Gerd Thomas, representing the South-West Regional Conference, countered: "I advocate retaining the current structure. I can't explain why it works in one place and not in another." Felizitas Schlechta from the North-East Regional Conference proposed a compromise between regional conferences, where they work, and district debates. However, this proposal failed to gain a majority, as did motions no. 3a-e, which were rejected by the delegates.

Among the motions to the regulations, the proposed ban on the shirt number 88, which is a right-wing extremist code for the banned greeting "Heil Hitler", led to lengthy discussions. The aim of the BFV presidium submitting the motion was to send a signal against right-wing extremism and for a sports environment that is critical of discrimination. However, the motion did not achieve the required simple majority and was rejected by the meeting. Motions no. 21-23 to the rules of the game generated just as much discussion. These dealt with the regulations for the release of match reports on DFBnet. In the recent past, clubs have increasingly been fined because they did not or could not meet the 60-minute deadline. After the applicants had presented their arguments and these were discussed in detail, the meeting agreed that the best solution was to extend the release time to 120 minutes. The corresponding motion no. 23 was adopted by a majority and the amendment to the match regulations will come into force on January 1, 2026.

The topic of penalties and fees was reintroduced into the debate at the Association Congress at a later date. The new contribution structure and the recent adjustments to penalties and fees were discussed controversially. The corresponding motions (own-initiative motion no. 3 and urgent motion no. 1), which sought to revoke the resolutions passed by the 2024 Extraordinary General Assembly, were rejected. At the same time, the meeting voted in favor of the continued existence of the Contributions Commission, in particular to review the penalties and fees once again.

The 2024 annual accounts and the 2026 budget were then approved by the delegates. The financial figures can be viewed here: BFV financial reports