Caught in the Brexit loop: Rangnicks anxiously waiting for the exception

Trapped in the Brexit loop
Rangnicks anxiously waiting for the exception

By Stephan Uersfeld

Ralf Rangnick has been Manchester United’s interim coach since the beginning of the week. Actually. If it weren’t for Brexit, which left him and his new club in despair. In order to train in the UK, the exception trainer needs an exception permit from an exception body.

Do you remember Viktor Navorski? Who is stranded at New York’s JFK Airport with nothing but his luggage and a peanut can. In whose country, Krakosia, a civil war breaks out. That is now no longer recognized by the USA. Who can therefore not enter and leave the country? And have to spend the next nine months in the terminal, feel at home there and experience all kinds of adventures.

Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film “Terminal” with Tom Hanks as Navorski about being lost in a world of bureaucracy and isolation in a foreign country is currently being retold by Manchester United’s new coach, Ralf Rangnick, in England. With new content, of course, with new problems. In Rangnick’s homeland, Germany, for all we know, no civil war has broken out and Britain continues to recognize the country.

Too few coaching hours

But the 63-year-old is still caught in an endless Brexit loop and is also in quarantine after arriving in Manchester, which he could soon leave if his PCR test is negative. Otherwise Rangnick’s hands are tied. He is not yet allowed to train his new team around superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. The reason is as simple as it is unclear: Brexit continues to cause Brexit things. And these Brexit things are currently massively preventing Rangnick from practicing his profession.

Rangnick, who is revered in the English press as the “godfather of counterpressing”, last practiced this, i.e. the profession of coach, in 2019. Too long ago for the tough rules in the former member state of the European Union. Because he has not been a trainer for two years and has not had enough hours as a trainer in the past five years, he does not automatically qualify for a UK work permit.

Instead, an independent body set up by the English Football Association is now waiting for the German. Among other things, they are to assess whether Rangnick, who is already cultically venerated in England and highly praised by Jürgen Klopp, is “able to make a significant contribution to the development of football at the highest level,” as the Telegraph reports. The panel, an “exception panel”, could issue an approval, an “exception authorization”, at the end of a long process. Then the UK Home Office would finally issue the visa.

Kafkaesque situation

The timing of the hearing is beyond the control of his new club, where Rangnick is to act as a consultant for two more years after his job as interim coach until the end of the season. It could be convened at any time, it could take a while. A downright Kafkaesque situation for United and Rangnick, who was hired as a savior. Delivered to a system that nobody wants or can understand, that is so complex and confused that one can only hope to find at least the right space for the hearing.

This can take a while. Take a long time. At least longer than Rangnick would like. On Thursday, Manchester United will host Arsenal at Old Trafford, a few days later they will play against Crystal Palace, then in the Champions League against Young Boys Bern and on December 11th they will travel to relegation candidate Norwich City. This is already mentioned in the English press as a possibility for his debut in the dugout. Fundamental doubts about the abilities of the former RB Leipzig trainer should not exist, one can hear.

A picture in a peanut can

Nine months after Navorski’s arrival in New York, the civil war in Krakosia ends. He can finally go back, not without Benny Golson’s signature on a picture. He carried that with him all the time. In the peanut can. His work is finished. His father was missing this autograph on the famous “A Great Day in Harlem” picture with 57 jazz musicians, first published in 1959 in Esquire magazine. Navorksi had managed to escape from the airport. For this one moment. For that one autograph.

So is Ralf Rangnick the Viktor Navorski of world football? Does the new Manchester United coach end up with a peanut can with a picture of all the Ballon d’Or winners? The only thing missing is Ronaldo’s signature? You don’t have to worry about that. The wheels of the Brexit bureaucracy grind slowly, but they will come to an end.

Until then, he can still feel a little like Tom Hanks in Spielberg’s wonderful film. And already this Thursday, if he should show a negative PCR test, as a visitor to the game Manchester United against Arsenal at Old Trafford. But then Michael Carrick is on the sidelines. The interim trainer continues to wait for the interim trainer to replace him.

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