Taherivand told the FR that the DFB must explain itself around the entry of Curtius. — AFP Relaxnews
Wikipedia has asked the German Football Federation (DFB) to shed light into whether it paid an external provider to edit the entry of its general secretary in the online encyclopaedia.
Der Spiegel news magazine said that the DFB engaged the external company in 2019, with the federation telling the Jan 19 Frankfurter Rundschau (FR) paper that the contract ended last year.
Wikipedia Germany executive director Abraham Taherivand told the FR that the DFB must explain itself around the entry of general secretary Friedrich Curtius.
"Paid editing, that is, the paid creation or revision of articles, contradicts the idea of voluntary work and is only tolerated if strict conditions are met,” he said.
"In particular, a possible paid revision of the article in question was not made transparent."
"It has nothing to do with fair sportsmanship. The DFB must now take a clear position as to whether and how the commissioning could come about," Taherivand said.
Wikipedia has also added a warning to the German language entry on Curtius which says that "The neutrality of this article or section is controversial". – dpa
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