Football mourns Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder

German and European football is mourning Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, former UEFA vice-president and UEFA Executive Committee member, former president of the German Football Association (DFB) and UEFA honorary member, who has passed away at the age of 82.

"Gerhard was a great man and a visionary with whom I sincerely enjoyed discussing ideas and proposals to improve European football," said UEFA President Michel Platini in paying tribute. "He worked tirelessly to promote and protect the game he loved and will be missed."

Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder was born in Mannheim. Having successfully studied law in Freiburg and Heidelberg, he became personal advisor to Baden-Württemberg's minister-president Hans Filbinger and, later, Baden-Württemberg's secretary for culture and sports, followed by a spell as the state's culture and finance minister.

Having served as a board member of Württemberg's state football association from 1968 to 1985, Mayer-Vorfelder became president of Bundesliga outfit VfB Stuttgart in 1975, with the club celebrating two Bundesliga titles under his leadership. After 25 years, he stepped down from this position in 2000 to become president of the DFB in April 2001 – a post which he held until after the FIFA World Cup staged in Germany in 2006. He subsequently became DFB honorary president.

Mayer-Vorfelder was elected to the UEFA Executive Committee in 2000, and remained on the committee until 2009. He served as a UEFA vice-president from 2007 to 2009, and chaired the HatTrick Committee during the same period. He was also a long-standing FIFA Executive Committee member. He was a member of the Exco Working Group on EU matters from 2004 to 2007, and a member of the Task Force Club Licensing (1998-2002), the Task Force EU Relations (2000-02) and the Task Force European Club Football (1998-2000).

He became an honorary member of European football's governing body at the XXXIII Ordinary UEFA Congress in Copenhagen in 2009.