Markus Babbel is upset this week about the fact that some of the statements made by his colleagues today mean that he is “kidding” as a football fan. But in fact, people in the Bundesliga always like to lie. Not only Uli Hoeneß knows that.
“I’ve learned to lie in the soccer business so much that even my wife thinks I’m a bastard.” The sentence comes from Dr. Peter Kunter – longtime goalkeeper and board member at Frankfurter Eintracht and doctor of dentistry. Hence the doctor in front of his name. Obviously an intelligent person who knew what he was talking about.
This week, the words of Markus Babbel about his coaching colleagues Hansi Flick, Friedhelm Funkel and Adi Hütter made headlines: “There is a lot going on for me there. In particular, the behavior of the outgoing Bayern coach Hansi Flick had irritated him. He accused him of saying “whisked shit”, something that Flick “does not do justice” to. Hütter and Funkel also sharply criticized Babbel for their – to put it mildly – “imprecise” statements in the recent past.
Basically, however, Babbel denounced not only the men on the bench, but the entire industry: “Add to this these diplomatic statements that nobody can use. As a football fan, I feel ripped off, I can no longer believe what is being said. ” Of course, the former Bundesliga coach is right in his words. But Babbel is wrong on one point: the fact that fans are often being fooled or simply lied to is not a completely new development. Because even if you ignore the perjury of Schalke in the wake of the Bundesliga scandal in the seventies, false promises have always been made in professional football and it has been tricked and deliberately told the untruth.
Hoeneß skips for autograph sessions
A prominent example from the 1974/75 season. At that time, world champion Uli Hoeneß was absent from training with FC Bayern and was therefore not allowed to travel to Bochum for the match on Saturday. The press and fans were initially not told anything about Hoeneß’s offense. The absence from training and play would be due to an injury, according to the club. But the truth quickly emerged. A letter from a Bayern supporter dissolved the story. While Hoeneß’s team-mates were in Munich for training, the enterprising Bayern star wrote his fingers in Frankfurt during three (!) Autograph hours. The Bayern fan also provided proof of this: the newspaper ad that advertised the events in black and white. Gone stupid!
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 Tuesdays 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.
But although these little lies were part of day-to-day business in the Bundesliga, there was usually one thing they weren’t: coordinated and planned well in advance. Mostly they arose out of the situation. That only changed in 1987, when Andreas Möller began a new era in German professional football that was to completely change the business. Nothing has been left to chance since those days. False promises and falsehoods, both large and small, became the system, since players and officials have been specially trained in dealing with the media ever since.
And in fact, Andreas Möller was the first professional to receive special briefings back then. His team of advisors, led by his foster father Klaus Gerster, worked with a lawyer on a paper entitled: “Proposals for answers to the public”. It contained such clever generalities as: “I’ve been playing for Eintracht Frankfurt since I was … I am a Frankfurter and Eintrachtler. I feel very closely connected to Eintracht Frankfurt and its supporters.”
“Money is irrelevant to me”
Some of the platitudes created back then have been heard again and again in professional football afterwards. Like this one on the subject of money: “The decisive factor for me is the sporting care provided by my club. Money is secondary to me.” In the opinion of the lawyer, Möller should answer “questions about negotiations with other clubs” with this phrase: “I want to stay in Frankfurt. I want to extend my contract with Eintracht Frankfurt for several years.” It is precisely these “diplomatic statements” that thirty years later still annoy Markus Babbel.
Möller’s teammate Axel Kruse called the paper, which is still the blueprint for the waxy statements on the verge of truth by the Bundesliga players, at the time, by the way, “Lying Primer”. A fitting term! Because it is undisputed that players, coaches, managers and officials at some moments when they open their mouths on certain topics already know that in the best case scenario they are not telling the full truth. In less good moments, they are even aware that only a lie will help.
Gladbach’s manager Max Eberl, who is often pleasantly noticed by his open and straightforward words, once said something very subtle on this topic: “It is the case that we do not always tell the truth. Now that is not a lie.” There is no better way to sum up the dubious mechanisms of the professional football business. But probably over the years the fans have got used to this “whisked shit” and the fact that they like to be sold for stupid. And so the plan of the thirty-year-old paper “Proposals for Answers to the Public” by Andreas Möller has obviously worked – even if football fans, like Markus Babbel at the moment, occasionally find themselves at one or the other tip of the iceberg like to encounter.
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