Trouble brewing

Klinsmann's desire to move World Cup base upsets German officials

RUST, Germany (AP) -- A top soccer official has threatened to resign unless the German soccer federation has the final word in its dispute with national coach Juergen Klinsmann over the team's training base for the 2006 World Cup.

Klinsmann has upset the country's soccer hierarchy by insisting on finding a new camp for his team before and during the tournament in Germany. The federation (DFB) wants to live up to its promise to Bayer Leverkusen to have the national team practice at the Bundesliga club's BayArena stadium.

The feud has grown into a power struggle between Klinsmann and top DFB officials.

"The coaching staff cannot make itself the board of the DFB. I won't have it, I'd rather step down in that case," DFB treasurer Theo Zwanziger said Friday. Zwanziger is slated to become of a DFB co-president next month.

Zwanziger said he was ready to support any move to improve conditions for the national team, even if it meant finding more expensive living and training quarters.

"But the form has to be respected: Juergen Klinsmann must take his ideas to us to decide," Zwanziger told the DPA news agency.

Zwanziger said the DFB was bound by contract to Leverkusen and that making decisions such as choosing the training base exceeded Klinsmann's competence.

Klinsmann insisted Thursday that he and his coaching staff alone would decide where the team would be staying and practicing.

The Bayer Leverkusen stadium and a hotel in the area were picked by DFB and Klinsmann's predecessor Rudi Voeller, who stepped down after Germany's dismal showing at Euro 2004.

Leverkusen, near Cologne, was chosen as the site of Germany's training camp partly because the BayArena stadium, with a capacity of 22,500, is too small to host World Cup matches and because the club's corporate sponsor, the pharmaceuticals giant Bayer, financially helped Germany's campaign to get the World Cup.

Voeller had also come to the national team from Leverkusen and the DFB and the club had close ties until Klinsmann's arrival.

Klinsmann said he was in no rush to make the decision and that it could come as late as after the Confederations Cup next summer in Germany, the dress rehearsal for the World Cup.

The players have backed Klinsmann, who is not happy with the distances between the Leverkusen stadium and the hotel.

Klinsmann, in a departure from previous German habits, said the team may change its quarters two or three times during the competition.

Since taking over two months ago, Klinsmann has shaken up the country's staid soccer establishment.