BERLIN: The beleaguered president of the German Football Association (DFB) Reinhard Grindel is set to resign, according to media reports on Tuesday.

Germany’s top-selling daily Bild, national broadcaster ZDF and news agency DPA said the 57-year-old would resign after nearly three years as the head of the DFB.

Grindel has been under pressure since Germany’s disastrous World Cup campaign last year when the national team crashed out after the group stages.

He was singled out by Mesut Ozil, who accused Grindel of overseeing a culture of institutional racism when the Arsenal midfielder retired from international duty last July.

Grindel has also faced further criticism over a variety of issues in the last few weeks.

In March, he broke off an interview with broadcaster Deutsche Welle after refusing to answer questions about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

On Friday, magazine Der Spiegel alleged that Grindel had kept quiet about 78,000 Euros ($87 ,380) of income which he had received from a DFB subsidiary in 2016 and 2017.

The DFB responded with a statement saying that Grindel had declared all his income correctly.

On Tuesday, Bild claimed Grindel had accepted the gift of a “luxury watch” from a “dubious Ukrainian oligarch”.

The newspaper has already named ex-Germany and Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder, 38, as a possible replacement to head the DFB.