So England think they have problems with their team manager (or lack of one) do they? For real problems, not to say personal tragedies, the English FA should look at their German counterparts, the DFB (Deutsches Fussballbund) and then count their lucky stars.
As we all know, Germany and England, once the strongest national teams in European soccer, underlined how far they have slipped down the European ratings with miserable showings at Euro 2000. England were bad but Germany were even worse, drawing with Romania and being beaten by England and Portugal in a first-round showing that saw them deservedly eliminated.
Those poor results prompted the immediate dismissal of coach Erich Ribbeck, plunging the DFB into a confused panic as they went looking for a successor. After some frantic days of phone-calling, the DFB probably felt they had struck lucky when they finally persuaded one of Germany's most talented coaches, Bayer Leverkusen's Christoph Daum, to accept the job, starting next July. In the meantime, former Roma and Germany striker not to say current Bayer Leverkusen director Rudi Voeller was handed the job on a caretaker basis. So far, this might all sound distinctly familiar to English ears.
Things, however, went badly wrong for Daum and the DFB at around three o'clock last Friday afternoon when the Institute of Legal Medicine in Cologne announced that tests taken on a hair belonging to Daum had proven positive, showing traces of cocaine. Within hours, Daum was not only out of his Bayer Leverkusen job but the DFB had also announced that they would not be honouring their "gentlemen's agreement" with Daum re the national team.
Daum has long been one of the most controversial and high-profile figures in German soccer. In 1992, he worked a minor miracle when winning the Bundesliga with VIB Stuttgart. Three years later, he underlined his undoubted managerial and coaching skills by lifting the Turkish title with Besiktas, while last season his Leverkusen side lost the Bundesliga title to Bayern Munich only on the very last day.
Daum's nomination as German national manager this summer, however, generated some negative reaction prompted not by concern about his coaching talent but rather about his "colourful" life-style. It was the Munich daily Abendzeitung that finally articulated the rumours that have circulated in German soccer for much of the last decade when producing a highly unflattering portrait of Daum two weeks ago. The article in question spoke of a "mysterious" nose operation undergone by Daum in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1994, while it quoted prison detainees who suggested that some of Daum's friends were linked to organised crime. Outraged by the allegations, Daum immediately volunteered to be dope-tested - with the catastrophic results seen last weekend. Franz Beckenbauer, now a vice-president of the DFB as well as president of Bayern Munich, called the result of Daum's dope test, "a tragedy", adding: "We all expected the results to be negative. No one wanted this."
As for Daum, he has hardly helped his cause by going missing. German media sources yesterday reported him to be, alternatively, in Florida, Spain or Switzerland. Before disappearing, Daum had defiantly pronounced himself "clean" and willing to undergo further tests to prove it.
In the meantime, Bayer Leverkusen and the DFB now both want the same man, Rudi Voeller, as their coach. Following Daum's resignation on Friday, Voeller was summoned by Bayer to sit on the bench for Sunday's 2-0 win against Borussia Dortmund. Not surprisingly, Bayer Leverkusen now wants Voeller to take over full-time, thus leaving the DFB in the lurch.
As part-time German coach, Voeller has been doing a good job, winning his first three games in charge including that 1-0 win against England at Wembley two weeks ago. It would seem that the DFB would now like Voeller to take the side all the way to the 2002 World Cup finals.
