The task is clear. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf (61) spoke of the “last shot” that the association still has in relation to the national team before the home European Championship in summer 2024. If it misses the target, it looks bleak for the future of the German football.
For this reason, two task forces were set up. On the one hand the Soko national team with ex-stars like world champion Rudi Völler (62) and the vice world champions Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (67) and Oliver Kahn (53). They should quickly get the current national team going and find the right manager. In addition, another body was set up around Stuttgart boss and DFB supervisory board member Alexander Wehrle (47). Together with Philipp Lahm (39) and Celia Sasic (34), he takes care of the future of German football – in terms of content and structure.
These two special units have a responsibility not only to stop the decline of the national team, which has been progressing since 2018. You have to turn the tide so that the renewed preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar remains the low point and German football has a perspective again. How is it supposed to work, what is expected? SPORT BILD asked around in the league.
The task force for the restart of the national team at the meeting in Frankfurt: DFB boss Neuendorf, his deputy Watzke and the football heavyweights Völler, Mintzlaff, Kahn, Sammer and Rummenigge (connected via video)
Photo: Thomas Böcker/DFB
First: Away with the feel-good oasis!
Before Christmas, Völler told SPORT BILD that he thought it was very important to win back “the enthusiasm and love” for the national team. That goes with victories. But that also includes the way the team performs. That will and passion can be seen like in Croatia, third in the World Cup. The players, the league says, should feel more like doing something for Germany than getting something from Germany. Less luxury, such as secluded top hotels with plenty of recreational value and a trusted in-house hairdresser. The new manager of the national team, who is proposed by the task force, has to implement this. The top candidate is Hertha boss Fredi Bobic (51).
Second: More humility!
It’s about things that are taken for granted, such as cleaning up the dressing room before leaving the stadium. The Japanese did it in Qatar. Or to sincerely congratulate the opponent, like the Moroccans did after losing to France in the semifinals. No more arrogance. The ulterior motive: whoever respects others and their performance more, gets more out of themselves.
Stuttgart boss Wehrle heads the task force for the renewal of the DFB
Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa
Third: More proximity!
The national team should be touchable again. Public training sessions instead of high walls and family-friendly kick-off times. Up until the European Championship there are only friendlies in which the DFB is not tied to Uefa dates. So why not a test at 5 or 6 p.m.? So that children also have the chance to see the national team play and to be able to feel it again.
Fourth: More participation!
The group around Wehrle and Lahm should reform the entire DFB. From youth to the top. Better structures, better education, better players for the future. The 36 professional clubs don’t want to watch from afar, they want to be involved. According to information from SPORT BILD, the process of the task force should look like this in the future: The current situation is presented relentlessly. Then goals are determined, measures are drawn up and only then is the right staff sought. External experts should help with this process. International connoisseurs could be invited and play a role – like Per Merte-sacker (38), who became world champion with Germany in 2014 and has headed the youth academy of his former club FC Arsenal since 2018.
Per Mertesacker could be invited as an expert for youth football. He heads the Arsenal FC academy
Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa
Fifth: openness to cuts!
According to many club bosses, the DFB should be open to a change of strategy in youth development. The look must go to France and England, where most of the top talent is currently being developed. In France in particular, the interaction between youngsters, professionals and the association is better than in Germany. We react together to developments in football. The junior academies are stronger. Education is more important than titles. Clubs and players are required to sign the first professional contract in France with the training club. The clubs below the top of the league in France rely extremely heavily on the players they have trained. They are more patient, give match practice. As a result, they get less average from other clubs and abroad. The impulse came from the association. Also for giving a second chance: Players who don’t make the breakthrough in the first two leagues at the age of 17, 18 or 19 and move to the lower leagues are still scouted intensively in order to be able to get back up there via the detour.
Sixth: coach education!
One model could be to train special youth coaches at the top level. Trainers who want to promote instead of advertising their own leap into the professional field with titles. As a result, the youngsters would probably play less tactics and play more. Players would be promoted individually in all positions instead of primarily training defensive work and passing. In addition, coaching training in Germany is very expensive. The A license, which is located under the football teacher, costs around 20,000 euros. This ensures that talented trainers are blocked for financial reasons. Cologne’s Steffen Baumgart (50) explained that he was only able to complete his training as a coach because a friend lent him the money.
Seventh: reconstruction of the academy!
The new DFB campus in Frankfurt offers too little space for the national team – a planning error
Foto: picture alliance/dpa
The DFB campus in Frankfurt, whose concept Oliver Bierhoff was responsible for, is considered by many experts to be a bad plan. The academy should be the home of the national team. But there aren’t enough rooms to complete a course here. In Frankfurt, a chic, scientific institute with playing fields and accommodation options has emerged rather than the center and training location of the German soccer elite. A correction of the construction and planning errors on campus seems inevitable.
Lots of work for the Sokos.
