“I’ve been silent for almost ten years”
After the frustrated return from Qatar, the wait begins for Hansi Flick and Oliver Bierhoff on the second weekend in Advent. The future of the national coach and the DFB director, who want to continue despite the maximum World Cup bankruptcy, is in the hands of Bernd Neuendorf. The many unknown association president is not the type for thoughtless quick shots. The outcome of the preliminary Christmas message is completely open, despite the growing chorus of experts and former greats demanding a radical cut. Flick and Bierhoff, on the other hand, receive support from former DFB sports director Robin Dutt, who generally sees the DFB as a source of criticism.
“This is the first time I’ve commented on it. I think now is perhaps the time when I can make a very small contribution with my opinion that things have to go faster in terms of content,” said Dutt, who worked for the DFB from August 2012 to May 2013 “Sky” interview. “Nothing was going on then. I decided at this point that I wasn’t ready to hide at my desk, especially when nothing is moving. I put up with the criticism of retiring so quickly. It’s been ten years since I’ve said anything, but with the opportunity to add fuel to the fire, I may be able to help speed things up this time. And that it’s not about the trainer and the sport, because they’re willing to push something quickly. The DFB as a whole has to move.”
Dutt drew attention to the emerging problems during his tenure. “When I was sporting director in 2012, I already analyzed the situation and made a forecast. This was also presented to the public in a very long press conference. That was at a time when we were still very, very strong. I was already looking ahead to two things back then. On the one hand, that the nations are moving closer together in terms of performance density. This means that you no longer automatically reach semi-final places. And on the other hand, we pointed out a problem on the defensive back then. At that point it was mainly the full-backs and the training of classic strikers,” says the current coach of Wolfsberger AC. “It’s been ten years now. I know that things have been set in motion in the meantime, but it is also clear that it will then take four to five years before you reap the rewards. Unfortunately, it has now been confirmed that you keep dropping out.”
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The procedure was actually already clear at the time. “It just goes hand in hand. DFB and the clubs together, because we cannot have two concepts of how talented people are trained in the youth academies. The coaches of the junior teams have to work hand in hand with the coaches of the junior teams in the youth academies,” explained Dutt and added with a view to the training structures: “We have positive players, I would actually count Nico Schlotterbeck among them , who can also grow into this role despite a mistake he made. Niclas Füllkrug is the best example of this. I saw him in Bremen, he developed incredibly well. But he’s already 29 years old, and he’ll be 33 at the next World Cup. If that’s our solution now, then that says everything about the development of classic structures in Germany. We have to be happy that we have Niclas now and that he is helping us in this phase, but that actually says everything about German football.”
Ex-DFB sports director Dutt protects Flick and Bierhoff
The problem is neither Flick, Bierhoff nor the sporting director Joti Chatzialexiou, “who fought back then and you have to support him with all your might,” said Dutt. “I can only say one thing – we tried to construct something at the last World Cup and then blame the coach as the problem. With Jogi Löw, we tried to damage an excellent coach in the criticism and now we are trying to do the same with Hansi Flick, who has won so many titles with FC Bayern Munich in a very short time and is an excellent coach. We’re trying to change that patch with a new coach – I really hope we don’t do that because the wound underneath is festering and bleeding. The coach is definitely not the problem, because then we’ll still be looking for a world championship title in 16 years.”
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DFB manager Bierhoff was completely Dutt’s opinion at the time. “At that time he was actually only responsible for the national team and he was already fighting for the structure of the DFB with the construction of the academy. It was a huge struggle to convince the DFB that we also have to reorganize the infrastructure. I’ve been silent for almost ten years and have endured everything that was accused of why I left the DFB after just one year. But it was certainly not the fault of people like Olli, who went along with it, but rather this DFB apparatus, which is being ground far too slowly, that I finally saw my time as a disciple wasted. Oliver was always a fighter – he wanted the academy and I wanted to build him towards it.”
Dutt did not reveal who exactly the people are who would slow down the development of the DFB, “but these are people who are not discussed in public – that is a huge apparatus. I’m too far away now too – I don’t know how the responsibility has been passed on now, but the mills turned too slowly back then. All I know is that Joti – who was in a different position at the time – and Oliver Bierhoff were officials who looked to the future many years ago. Who have thought outside the box, even outside of Germany. The visions had. But yes, it takes a while at the DFB, because the clubs also have a much faster pace in their youth centers – they invest a lot more than the main people responsible. We wanted to set the pace – Olli pulled it through, respect for that. However, I didn’t want to waste ten years of my life just laying the groundwork on a sports policy level. I was probably the wrong man for that.”
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