Five years ago, the recently signed English national coach Sam Allardyce fell for a journalist trap. At the time, he chatted humorously and carefree about colleagues and illegal financial tricks. That was his undoing. After only 67 days he had to pack his bags again!
Sam Allardyce once said, “In my first six months as a coach at Notts County, my name was written in chalk on the door.” Six months? Allardyce’s tenure as England national coach, back in autumn 2016, didn’t even begin to last that long. One can only hope that the English federation, like Notts County, hadn’t printed any name badges either, because at just 67 days, the now 66-year-old from Dudley near Birmingham still holds the record of the shortest term of office of any English national coach.
His end, five years ago, was preceded by a fatal embarrassment. Allardyce fell for journalists who pretended to be business people and “squeezed” all sorts of explosive information out of the English football coach. Believing he was talking to representatives of an East Asian company, Allardyce chatted frankly about how to get around the English transfer rules with a few simple tricks and then blaspheme his predecessor Roy Hodgson. He did not notice that the supposed business people on the one hand deliberately lured him out of the reserve and on the other hand they were secretly filming him. The “Daily Telegraph” presented the embarrassing affair to its readers with relish.
When it became known that Allardyce wanted to conclude an extremely lucrative consultancy contract as part of these talks, the association had no other option than to dismiss the newly appointed national coach after just one game. Sam Allardyce reacted in shock, but immediately acknowledged his wrongdoing: “It was a great honor for me to be named back in July and I am deeply disappointed with this end.”
Winnie Schäfer also chatted
The crazy case from England was very reminiscent of a story from the Bundesliga that caused a sensation in 1991. At that time, a magazine from Austria presented German football. With a sham offer, journalists of the “Wiener”, disguised as representatives of a sports agency, made contact with various trainers. The popular KSC coach at the time, Winfried Schäfer, was very interested and indicated that there were no problems with Karlsruhe at all for him, as his club was in breach of contract anyway: “I have a contract in which six points are fixed. At least four of them are not fulfilled. ”
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and maintains his legendary treasure trove of anecdotes. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Mondays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his website www.scudetto.de.
However, this text passage was really spicy about the story: Schäfer is said to have spoken out in the discussions about the entertainment offers for the men in black that are common in the Bundesliga. “When referee D. whistles on the Lauterer Betzenberg, two girls sit next to him in the evening at the hotel bar. Well-run clubs know exactly who is into which type, whether blonde or brunette. And whether one or two on the bed Pillows must lie. ”
Gladbach’s coach at the time, Gerd vom Bruch, is also said to have been duped by the journalists. He was quoted as saying about the world champion Lothar Matthäus: “Lothar is not a professional. He drinks too much and eats too much. He has no stamina, is over the top.” Lothar Matthäus reacted understandably angry, but also calmly: “I could never have achieved so much if I had only drank and ate.”
Almost a tradition in England
And Sam Allardyce’s legendary faux pas reminded of another story. In 2006, the then English national coach Sven-Göran Eriksson fell for an undercover reporter. He had pretended to be a sheikh and at a meeting in Dubai got Eriksson to tell the story. In the subsequent article in the “News of the World”, the Swede revealed many secrets – about truly prominent names such as David Beckham, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand. The players were far from enthusiastic about the stories their national coach had told about them. And so Sven-Göran Eriksson had to announce his retirement at the end of the tournament before the start of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
But the Swede, like Sam Allardyce, started a new job soon after the embarrassing misstep. With Allardyce it was simply assumed that on the evening of the chats he must have drunk a little too much on the thirst. And so the Dudley man is doing well to this day. Just as the English national coach, Sam Allardyce will probably never work again.