comment
Superficially, sporting reasons led to the end of Oliver Bierhoff. However, the lack of flair for football outside of the national team was crucial.
It was quicker than expected, but the result was the expected. Oliver Bierhoff is leaving the German Football Association (DFB) and that’s a good decision.
In terms of sport, the association is going through a low of historic proportions with the senior national team. The two coaches Joachim Löw and Hansi Flick are primarily responsible for this. Bierhoff is only partly to blame for this, which is rather small. But he, who was the manager of the elite selection for 18 years, even if his job title changed to managing director of DFB GmbH, bears the main blame for a massive problem at the association.
The base has been lost to Bierhoff
It has always been the case that football fans generally have a much closer bond with a club. At best, these fans didn’t care about the national team. At the so-called base, on the sports fields, in offices and in schools, there are more and more people who are enjoying the failure of the former “The Team”.
The basis has been lost and Bierhoff didn’t notice it because he has no feeling for football, who is looking for coaches, referees, supervisors and people who grill sausages in the sales booth at the weekend.
Nobody at the DFB dared to show Bierhoff the limits
Bierhoff looked for quarters or had quarters built in which everything was taken for granted. He is the father of the new academy, which has become very large and very expensive, just like the many employees Bierhoff has hired.
Other employees shook their heads and referred to the costs, but nobody dared to show the smart manager the limits.
Watzke has blown to the storm
There was headwind – if at all – from the German Football League (DFL) and its clubs. Hans-Joachim Watzke has always blown a lot, now the managing director of Borussia Dortmund and chairman of the supervisory board of the German Football League has blown the storm.
The clubs can’t be indifferent if the national team doesn’t matter to the fans, because the interest in football determines the price, especially when it comes to the award of media rights.
The search for Bierhoff’s successor
The DFB must now look for a successor for Bierhoff. Secretary General Heike Ullrich, highly valued in the association, would be someone for the post of managing director.
As a manager, sports director or whatever the new face of the national team is called, you need competence and prominence. The 2024 European Championship is only a year and a half away. Until then, working with the national coach, who will probably continue to be called Hansi Flick, to turn the mood is a daunting task.
Separation is the right consequence
Sending the players to the hotel door for a moment to sign a few autographs and take photos is the wrong approach because it shows that nothing was understood. The national team needs to get back to normal life.
Bierhoff would not have gotten the curve, otherwise he would have noticed long before that he had to give in. The complete separation and no half-baked solution – only academy, no national team – is therefore the right consequence of the past few years, not just the few weeks in Qatar.