Saturday 20th November 2021
“The accusation is really massive”
Police probably accelerated the start
Second division soccer club Werder Bremen have to look for a new coach. The previous one, Markus Anfang, now has other problems than winning games: the public prosecutor’s office is investigating him, and the police were already there. A brief outline of a quick escalation.
Markus Anfang is no longer the coach of the second division soccer team Werder Bremen. The reason is not a sporting one: the beginning used an apparently forged vaccination certificate, in the morning the club announced its resignation. Just a few hours before the game against FC Schalke in a sold-out stadium. The timing is extremely unusual – and suggests that something has started to slide like a landslide on the way to the announcement. Werder managing director Frank Baumann then stated that “a different situation” had arisen on Friday, “the facts have changed a bit.” In the end everything went quickly and that has to do with a police appearance. Sequentially:
Late on Thursday evening, the club had announced in a short notice that the public prosecutor had initiated an investigation against the beginning. The suspicion: the trainer used a fake vaccination certificate. According to information from the portal “Deichstube“The batch number of the vaccine and a vaccination date are said to have been inconsistent in the trainer’s vaccination certificate. For example, a vaccination date is said to overlap with a job as a Werder trainer Coronavirus-tested Werder professionals.
The beginning asserted that “like every other double-vaccinated citizen, I received both of my vaccinations in an official vaccination center and received the appropriate sticker in the yellow vaccination certificate,” the association said. He then “had the vaccination certificate digitized in the pharmacy”. The beginning “naturally assumed that everything would be in order,” the ex-trainer is quoted as saying. The association initially left the process uncommented in the message.
Police come with a search warrant
On Friday a club representative said for the first time with Baumann: “Markus assured us that everything went correctly and that he was vaccinated. There is no reason for us to doubt it,” said the managing director, who used a media round to find out who was responsible Authorities criticize: “So far it is the case that Markus himself has not been contacted at all. It is not nice for him to be burdened with accusations that you do not even know what the problem is. There are no official ones Notes. Markus is ready to be in contact with the authorities. ” He was expecting new knowledge “in the coming week at the earliest”. But then “very, very much happened,” as he explained on the day of his resignation.
The findings came faster on Friday evening and apparently with great force: in the form of a visit from the police at the Weser Stadium. The officers had a search warrant for the private apartments of Markus Anfang and assistant trainer Florian Junge, who had also resigned and is, as it were, under suspicion. As the “Deichstube” reports, the officials had asked the club officials to persuade the beginning and the young to cooperate. Apparently successful: “We obtained a resolution that would have authorized us to search his apartment. That was not necessary because the documents we wanted were made available to us so that we did not have to do this,” said prosecutor Frank Passade opposite the “Bild” newspaper. Immediately after the unpleasant meeting, writes the “Deichstube”, the beginning and the boy announced their resignation. “With their step, Markus and Florian are taking responsibility and are helping to end the unrest that has arisen around the club and the team in the last few days,” said the club.
The facts could not be “cleared up quickly”
Baumann, who had taken a protective position in front of his executives on Friday, said after the resignation in a video on the club’s homepage that the allegation that is in the room was “really massive. That then took on a dimension where we as an association have also considered: What is the right decision? ” Since the beginning assured that they had not done anything wrong, Werder gave the “most important employee in a club” a “leap of faith”. However, the facts would have changed over the course of Friday. Baumann had announced optimistically that they wanted to “clear up the matter quickly”. Obviously, that is not possible. Baumann did not reveal details, but said that “the preliminary investigation cannot be clarified overnight” and that it is therefore feared that it will have an impact on the club’s image and the sporting sector. Baumann initially sees his resignation as the “right decision”.
In the beginning, the presumption of innocence still applies, as to whether he has used a forged vaccination certificate, which is still being checked: “We will be able to clarify to what extent the vaccination card is actually false in the course of the week,” explained Passade. Beginning himself has not commented on the association’s announcements, in which he clearly rejects all suspected cases.
When he started working at the Weserstadion in the beginning of the summer, he had declared that he had not yet been vaccinated. Only last week, however, the former SV Darmstadt 98 coach gave an update on his vaccination status. “I have been vaccinated myself, but everyone can make their own decision,” the 47-year-old told the “Bild” newspaper. The use of a forged vaccination certificate is a punishable offense for private individuals in relation to authorities and insurance companies. In this case, they face fines or imprisonment. The prosecution’s investigations are ongoing.