Sabetzki was one of the founding members of the German Ice Hockey Federation in 1963.
In 1966 he was elected as a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation, an organization he would lead as president, from 1975 to 1994.
While president of the IIHF, he was instrumental in bridging the gap between European and North American hockey powers, and helped bring Hockey Canada back into the Olympic fold in 1980.
In 1982, Sabetzki formed the first German women's hockey league.
This German biographical article relating to ice hockey is a stub.