Managing director Donata Hopfen is leaving the German Football League (DFL) by mutual consent after just one year because of “different ideas about the future strategic direction of the company,” the DFL said on Wednesday. Hopfen took the job in January in succession of Christian Seifert on a three-year contract. Reports said that she failed to convince her critics in the areas of internationalisation, digitalization, and the 50+1 rule which outlaws full takeovers of German professional clubs by investors – and lost the confidence of the supervisory board. Its chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke said…