Strange days

German coach hopes to rebuild Iraq team after war

BERLIN (Reuters) -- After leaving Baghdad in a hurry just before the war started, German coach Bernd Stange now hopes to gather Iraq's national soccer team together for a series of post-war international friendlies.

"Football for me represents peace and that's why we should get back to playing again as soon as possible," said Stange, 54, who signed a four-year contract to coach Iraq last year.

"I'd like to get my team together and go on an international tour with them, perhaps to London or other cities. Right up to the war they kept playing the championship, they're all fit.

"They're professional sportsmen but they're not getting what's needed there now, lacking water and proper nutrition," Stange said in an interview from his home in Germany.

He stayed in telephone contact with his assistants and Iraqi football association officials until a few days after the war started and knew first division matches were being played up until Baghdad was invaded by U.S. forces in early April.

"The telephone network has been badly damaged and it's impossible to get through right now," he told Reuters. "The national team kept training right up until the war reached Baghdad but after that it was no longer possible to practice."

Stange said Olympic qualification matches with Vietnam set for April had been postponed indefinitely by FIFA due to the war. He believes Iraq still have an excellent chance of reaching the World Cup finals in 2006.

"We were ahead of Scotland, Wales and Austria in the FIFA rankings in February and ranked fifth in Asia," Stange said. "We have a good team that plays well together -- Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians all play in harmony on the pitch."

Saddam's payroll

Rejecting suggestions he might not be allowed to coach because he was on Saddam Hussein's payroll, Stange said he had never met or had anything to do with the ousted Iraqi president or his playboy son Uday, the head of Iraq's football association and Olympic committee.

Stange drew widespread criticism in Germany for posing for a photograph during his contract negotiations in Baghdad last year in front of a giant Saddam portrait.

"I never had any contact at all with Saddam or Uday," Stange bristled. "Their names aren't on any of my documents or contracts. My contact has been with the Iraq football association and FA vice president S. Mohammad Hussein.

"And that's why I don't have any reluctance about going back as soon as the situation settles down.

"I'm a football trainer and sports teacher, I'm not a politician. I criticized the war and believe the price in civilian casualties was too high.

"I am on the same wavelength as the German government and I think the conflict could have been resolved peacefully."

Quick return

He realizes U.S. authorities may not share his enthusiasm for his quick return to Iraq.

"I don't expect much from Americans -- they don't have a big attachment to soccer anyway," Stange said. "But I would hope the English FA might help get us off the ground again.

"I'd very much like to get back with the people in Iraq and give them encouragement to look forward to better times.

"But first I have to somehow get in touch with the Iraq FA. I hope it's possible to return."

Stange was a former East German trainer from 1983 to 1988 and had been unemployed for a year after getting fired from Oman before he agreed to coach Iraq.

He had been a big name in football in East Germany but struggled after the Berlin Wall fell and the two Germanys united in 1990.

He coached Hertha Berlin but was fired after evidence surfaced he worked as an informant for the East German Stasi security police who tracked and persecuted dissenters to the communist regime.

Stange admits he was concerned about media reports that Uday had had players whipped, tortured and imprisoned after bad results. But he said none of his players, aged 18 to 23, or assistant coaches saw or experienced any torture.

"Because I like my fingernails, I asked players and functionaries beforehand whether these sorts of things happened and they all said they couldn't confirm any of it," Stange said.

"All I can say is my fingernails are still intact."

 

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