Reinhard Grindel has quit key posts at UEFA and FIFA after being forced to step down as President of the German Football Association ©Getty Images

Reinhard Grindel has officially stood down from key roles at FIFA and UEFA after he was forced to resign as President of the German Football Association (DFB) following allegations of undeclared earnings and the acceptance of a watch as a gift.

The 57-year-old was a vice-president at UEFA and a member of the ruling FIFA Council. 

Grindel confirmed his decision to leave both posts in a letter to UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin. 

He stood down as head of the DFB after revelations that he had failed to declare additional income of €78,000 (£67,000/$87,000) for being chairman of its subsidiary media management company in 2016 and 2017 and that he had accepted a watch worth around €6,000 (£5,000/€5,300) from Ukrainian oligarch and the country's Football Federation President Grigoriy Surkis, a UEFA vice-president and Executive Committee member.

In the immediate aftermath of the revelations, Grindel claimed the media in Germany had "lost all sense of proportion".

But the pressure on the former television journalist and ex-Bundestag Deputy for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party refused to subside and he has now bowed to the inevitable. 

The one highlight of Reinhard Grindel's term of office as President of the German Football Association was the country being awarded Euro 2024 ahead of Turkey ©Getty Images
The one highlight of Reinhard Grindel's term of office as President of the German Football Association was the country being awarded Euro 2024 ahead of Turkey ©Getty Images

"Today, in a letter to UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, I explained my reasons for submitting my resignation as a UEFA vice-president and as a member of the FIFA Council," Grindel said. 

"It was inexplicably naïve of me not to immediately report the gift [of a luxury watch] to the responsible compliance officer. 

"I take responsibility for that at national and international level and, out of particular concern for UEFA’s reputation, I also do not want to burden FIFA's progress towards achieving more transparency and good governance."

Grindel had taken over at the DFB in 2016, promising to introduce a new cleaner style of leadership after both predecessors, Theo Zwanziger and then Wolfgang Niersbach, had been implicated in a financial scandal over Germany's successful bid for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. 

He had announced that he would be paid a monthly wage of €14,400 (£12,500/$16,200) only for it to subsequently emerge that he was also taking a further five-figure sum for the chairmanship of the DFB Medien GmbH subsidiary.

During a term of office marked by controversy, the one highlight under Grindel came last September when Germany were awarded the 2024 UEFA European Championships ahead of their only rival, Turkey.