Crisis committee after World Cup debacle
DFB calls legends for the rescue mission
12/13/2022, 10:50 a.m
2000, 2004, 2005: The DFB already had a few commissions in the football emergency. After the repeated and crashing World Cup embarrassment in Qatar, a panel of experts led by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge should help set the course for the home European Championship in 2024.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf has hired an expert council led by former Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to deal with the bankruptcy of the World Cup and realign the national team for the 2024 home European Championship. The plans are expected to be announced at a press conference this Tuesday (12 noon) at the association’s headquarters in Frankfurt. According to information from the German Press Agency, the new body is similar to the so-called national team task force, which, with Rummenigge as the leading person, also put the DFB structures to the test after the EM debacle in 2000.
According to information from the “Bild” newspaper, alongside Rummenigge, the new committee in Matthias Sammer, Rudi Völler, Oliver Kahn and Oliver Mintzlaff currently or formerly belonged to leading players in the Bundesliga clubs Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig. The working group is headed by Neuendorf and his DFB Vice and DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Joachim Watzke. The DFB has not yet confirmed this selection of personnel.
Neuendorf had announced an in-depth analysis after the end of the group phase in Qatar. “We still have to look ahead and will therefore initiate an orderly process on how to deal with this situation,” was a core sentence from Neuendorf in a statement immediately before the flight home at Hamad International Airport in Doha. The first consequences were the separation of managing director Oliver Bierhoff after 18 years in a responsible position for the DFB team. The 54-year-old left his post just five days after the group knockout in Al Khour. Two days later, on Wednesday last week, there was a pledge of loyalty to national coach Hansi Flick, who, after his failed tournament premiere from Neuendorf and Watzke, was given a second chance at the home event in 18 months.
Per Mertesacker is traded as Bierhoff’s successor
After Bierhoff’s exit, numerous names had been speculated as successors in the past few days. Hertha managing director Fredi Bobic, European champion with the DFB team in 1996, and Rio world champion Per Mertesacker, currently the successful director of Arsenal FC’s youth academy, are considered the most promising candidates. However, Neuendorf quickly hinted that the first thing to do was to create a requirements profile and a job description. It is considered sensible to divide Bierhoff’s tasks for the DFB academy and the national team between two people. The new Commission should also deal with these considerations in the coming weeks.
There is no great deadline pressure. The next international matches are not due until March 2023. Then, however, the countdown to the home EM begins. Until the opening game on June 14, 2024, Flick only has test games left to build a team that is capable of winning the title. Participation in the final tournament of the Nations League in June 2023 was lost in September with a 0-1 loss to Hungary two months before the World Cup collapse.
In 2000, national coach Erich Ribbeck had to leave after the preliminary round of the European Championship. The national team task force, which, in addition to Rummenigge, also included Uli Hoeneß, his brother Dieter Hoeneß, Klaus Allofs, Rudi Assauer and Rudi Völler as the newly appointed DFB team manager, initiated a concept for promoting young talent. In addition, the schedule of the DFB-Elf was influenced and a concept for a so-called Team 2006 as a perspective selection for the home World Cup was developed.
Just four years later, another panel of experts had to be installed. After Völler’s resignation as a result of the early failure of the European Championships in Portugal, the so-called coach selection committee headed by Franz Beckenbauer looked for a new national coach. After several rejections, the choice fell on Jürgen Klinsmann. When the sporting goals under the reform-zealous national coach seemed in danger in autumn 2005, another task force was set up, this time under the title “National Team Working Group” with Uli Hoeneß as the driving force.