After the World Cup disaster in Qatar, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf convened a crisis meeting with national coach Hansi Flick, national team director Oliver Bierhoff and DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke next week.
Before the departure of the German national soccer team from Doha, Neuendorf announced on Friday (December 2nd, 2022) that it would carry out an in-depth analysis of the early failure at the World Cup. “My expectation of the sporting management is that they carry out an initial analysis at this meeting, a sporting analysis of this tournament, but that they also develop perspectives for the time after the tournament with a view to the European Championships in their own country”, Neuendorf said in a statement to media at Doha Airport. The early loss of the World Cup hurt “extremely” and was a “severe disappointment” for him.
Personnel consequences – Neuendorf wants to wait for analysis
Initially, there should not be any personal consequences. “We take the first step before the second”, said Neuendorf, but gave no job guarantees for the athletic management crew. National coach Flick and Bierhoff had ruled out resigning after the 4-2 win against Costa Rica, which saw the DFB team miss the round of 16. Both have a contract until 2024.
The four-time world champion Germany was eliminated in Qatar for the second time after 2018 after the preliminary round of a World Cup. Neuendorf said he was “A big believer in clear procedures. We initiated that.” Conversations should be conducted with respect. He does not want to issue any water level reports, but only go public with a result.
Neuendorf has only been in office as DFB President since March of this year. He now has to deal with a failure of the DFB flagship for the first time and is under a lot of pressure himself before the European Championship in his own country.
DFB players travel home – or on vacation
Meanwhile, the DFB entourage left the World Cup base in Al-Ruwais in the very north of Qatar on Friday morning. With the team bus, escort vehicles and police escort, we went to the international airport in the capital. Flight LH343 was scheduled to take off there at 2:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. CET). A stopover in Munich is planned for 6:50 p.m. CET, and the Lufthansa plane is scheduled to land in Frankfurt/Main shortly after 9 p.m.
According to Sportschau information, not all DFB players are in the machine home. Some travel home on their own responsibility – or on to holiday destinations such as Dubai. In his capacity as DFB President, Neuendorf will remain at the World Cup in Qatar.