IAs a rule, soccer coaches are fired a few hours after a game. Most of the time they have then lost them. In Bremen it happened differently this Saturday. There, coach Markus Anfang and his assistant Florian Junge and their club Werder Bremen parted ways a few hours before the top game in the 2nd division. On this Saturday evening, the green-whites will compete in their own stadium against FC Schalke 04 (in the sports ticker of the WELT). Assistant coach Danjiel Zenkovic sat on the bench.
The fact that such a far-reaching decision is made so quickly before an important game naturally leads to the conclusion that this separation was not about the usual “lack of sporting success” or “no longer being able to achieve the team”. And so it was. At least that is what Werder made no secret of in its official announcement. Literally it said: “The reason for the decision are public prosecutor’s investigations against both coaches and the resulting unrest in and around the club.”
Shortly before the game against Schalke, sports director Frank Baumann became a little more specific. He does not go into details “in an ongoing investigation. We confronted Markus Anfang about it, and he assured us that there was nothing wrong with the allegations. First of all, the presumption of innocence is proper ”. On Friday, however, “new suspicions were added. In a pandemic, it is strongly condemned if someone were to forge a vaccination card. That doesn’t mean that this is the case with Markus. If this is the case, you have to act consistently, of course. “
Baumann reported that he initially saw vaccination cards in the team after a corona case: “The discrepancies were only discovered by the health department. It is believed that in almost 30 years of professional football, one has seen everything. But there are always new facets. These allegations are extremely serious in today’s pandemic time. ”
The accusation that has been in the room against the beginning and boy since Thursday is serious. The public prosecutor’s office in Bremen had initiated an investigation towards the beginning. The background is a criminal complaint from the Bremen health department. The 47-year-old beginning and the 35-year-old boy are suspected of having used fake vaccination certificates.
Markus Anfang (left) and assistant trainer Florian Junge
Source: dpa / Thomas Frey
However, the beginning immediately and very clearly denied this. “Just like every other double-vaccinated citizen, I received my two vaccinations at an official vaccination center,” said Anfang and on Friday afternoon he was backed by Baumann, who said: “Markus assured us that everything went correctly and that he also vaccinated is. And so, from our point of view, there is no reason to doubt it. “
Got a golden bridge in the beginning?
The morning after, Werder announced the separation with a message that did not address the allegations made at the beginning in one word. Instead, the willing reader had to get the impression that a golden bridge was being built in the beginning. The coach was not officially dismissed, but resigned of his own free will. In the quote it read like this: “Due to the extremely stressful situation for the club, the team, my family and myself, I have decided that I will end my job as Werder Bremen’s head coach with immediate effect. I have therefore asked the responsible persons to terminate my contract immediately. “
Werder Bremen had complied with this wish, as Baumann stated: “With their step, Markus and Florian are taking responsibility and thus helping to end the unrest that has arisen around the club and the team in the last few days. We respect your decision and will now start looking for a new head coach. “
Of course, for the beginning, who was only in the middle of the table with Werder, the presumption of innocence applies. Because not only Werder Bremen, but also the Bremen public prosecutor had not commented on the results of the investigation until Saturday afternoon. But it seems at least a little strange that an experienced Bundesliga coach throws the chunks down on his own because of an investigation and some headlines. Especially since, according to his own statement, the whole thing could only be a big misunderstanding. So what happened between Friday noon and Saturday morning?
The investigations towards the beginning are said to have started around the Corona case of the Bremen player Marco Friedl. The health department checked the vaccination records of contact persons of the football professional and is said to have come across discrepancies in the vaccination books from the beginning and the young. According to information from the Internet portal “Deichstube”, the vaccine batch number and vaccination date should have been inconsistent in the trainer’s vaccination certificate. A vaccination appointment is supposed to overlap in the initial evidence with a deployment as a Werder trainer.
“You have cooperated”
On Friday, according to Radio Bremen, the public prosecutor’s office came to Werder with a search warrant between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. and demanded that the two trainers hand over the vaccination records and other documents. Since both responded to the request, the search warrant was not applied, said Frank Passade, spokesman for the Bremen public prosecutor: “You have cooperated. The whole thing went neatly and noiselessly. ”Immediately after the handover, the beginning and the young had submitted their resignation.
Even with the German Football League (DFL), they seem less than convinced by the portrayal of the voluntary withdrawal of an innocent. The DFL made this very clear at the request of WELT AM SONNTAG. “The club informed the DFL in advance this morning that Markus Anfang will resign from his position as Werder Bremen coach immediately. We don’t know the facts “, it said:” If the suspicion in the room is confirmed, it would be an unacceptable affront to everyone who has been vaccinated in the past few months and has thus made their contribution to containment of the corona. The DFL is still in contact with Werder Bremen on this. “
On Saturday afternoon, Baumann commented again and adjusted the notification of resignation a little. “The allegation that is in the room is massive,” said the manager. During the course of Friday there were new facts, so that the club also considered what the right decision was: “It was to be feared that this could not be clarified overnight and that it could still drag on overall. And then it has an impact on the sporting field, but also on the overall image of the club. “
So it fit into the picture of this disastrous day that the club had to publish a message on Saturday. Werder also has to do without its head of professional football for the time being. Clemens Fritz tested positive for Corona and is in quarantine.
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