After the embarrassing preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar, Lothar Matthäus calls for a change in the German Football Association. The association must develop new guidelines and find an attitude towards success. Personal details such as manager Oliver Bierhoff should also be up for debate.
Lothar Matthäus sees a great need for reform after the early exit of the DFB team at the World Cup in Qatar. “There has actually been no sporting success in the last five years, although we have played five competitions. Two Nations Leagues, one European Championship, two World Championships and always missed the target,” complained the 1990 world champion on ntv.
The German record national player therefore demanded noticeable consequences: “Now you have to make guidelines where the leadership of the DFB is. We don’t need the best academy if we don’t have the mentality, the passion and the quality that you need to keep up at the top. I miss that emotional element of a captain, of a vice-captain.”
In the opinion of the 61-year-old, the DFB team is burdened with background noise in almost every position: “There are many internal questions that the players cannot answer for themselves. That’s why this discussion doesn’t stop, that’s why there is a certain amount of uncertainty. And You can see this uncertainty somewhere on the pitch.”
Matthäus was no less critical of the association’s leadership: “There’s just too much unrest at the DFB in general. You have to calm things down, you have to have a trusting relationship.” Matthäus, himself a five-time player at World Cups, also warned about considerations of personnel changes: “We’ve had bad years behind us, Oliver Bierhoff is on board – and you have to question Oliver Bierhoff as well.”
He also alluded to the relationship between the DFB executives and FIFA boss Gianni Infantino: “They’re all funny when they’re sitting in the stands and also take pictures with Infantino, whom they attacked hard before and smile at the camera. The players are supposed to send a signal, but the bosses take photos with those who have criticized them in the German media.”