Vincent Kompany will miss FC Bayern’s Champions League first leg against PSG due to a suspension. Assistant coach Aaron Danks takes over. Curious examples like Mourinho’s laundry basket trick show how coaches used to try to get around bans.
When FC Bayern plays Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, Vincent Kompany will take his place in the stands at Prinzenpark. The Munich coach is suspended for the semi-final first leg due to his third yellow card in the current competition, which he received in the quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid. His assistant coach Aaron Danks will take over.
BR24Sport will broadcast the Champions League semi-final between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Bayern on Tuesday, April 28th from 9 p.m. in the live report on BR24Radio and in the Livecenter.
Eberl: Kompany ban “I think it doesn’t matter for the team”
According to Article 69 of the “UEFA disciplinary regulations”, a coach or person in charge who is suspended “may not be near the pitch or the team bench or communicate directly with the team’s players and/or the staff during the game from the stands.” In addition, coaches are not allowed to enter the locker room or the players’ tunnel. Translated, this means: Kompany is allowed to travel in the team bus and give a final speech to the team. The coach and team then part ways.
Sports director Max Eberl is calm about Kompany’s yellow card suspension: “I think it doesn’t matter for the team. Of course, Vincent Kompany is our head coach and we would have liked to have all of him on board. It’s a shame, but that’s the way it is now, we’ve come to terms with it,” said Eberl before the flight to Paris.
Kompany replacement Danks “doesn’t have to get tips”
Assistant coach Danks also “doesn’t have to get any tips because the two have been working incredibly closely together for several years now,” emphasized Eberl: “They know exactly what makes them tick, and Aaron knows exactly what Vini wants, how he wants it and how he wants to implement it in his own way. That’s why I don’t worry.”
“Was dying” – Mourinho’s strange laundry trick
It is questionable whether Kompany will break these rules. Finally, according to media reports, a UEFA “watchdog” will sit near the Bayern coach and observe whether he tries to circumvent the ban.
There are plenty of ideas for getting around UEFA’s bans. Coach legend Jose Mourinho probably had the most sophisticated plan – against FC Bayern of all places. The Portuguese was at Chelsea FC in the 2004/05 season when the Londoners met Munich in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Mourinho was suspended for the two legs.
“I went to the dressing room during the day and stayed there until the game. I really wanted to be there when the team arrived. I went there and no one saw me,” Mourinho admitted to Qatari TV channel beIN Sports. But the coach had to disappear from the dressing room unnoticed and so he became inventive: “The equipment manager hid me in the laundry basket. It was opened a little so that I could still breathe. When the equipment manager took me out of the dressing room in the basket, the people from UEFA followed us and looked for me. So he closed the box so that I could no longer breathe. When the basket was opened again, I was dying.” Chelsea ultimately won 4-2 in the first leg and 2-3 in the second leg.
With headphones in the stands – Simeone was also probably tricking
Diego Simeone also seems to have avoided a ban. When he was suspended for three games in the Spanish league in 2016, not only “El Cholo” took a seat in the stands, but also the goalkeeping coach Pablo Vercellone. Vercellone wore a headset and repeatedly spoke into the microphone with his hand held in front of him. Possible addressee: Simeone’s assistant coach German Burgos, who was sitting on the bench and – unlike usual – also wearing headphones.
It remains to be seen whether Kompany will take his lead from his prominent colleagues. At least Eberl’s statements leave room for interpretation. Kompany, said Eberl, will, despite the ban, “use his influence wherever he can. He is an incredible coach.” As a precaution, UEFA should check all laundry baskets.
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Source: BR24Sport on the radio April 27, 2026 – 9:54 a.m
