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Vogts to stay on despite criticism
Posted: Thursday July 09, 1998 11:10 AM
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Despite a disappointing 3-0 loss to Croatia in the quarterfinals, Berti Vogts (far left) will stay as Germany's head coach |
PARIS (Reuters) -- Berti Vogts will definitely carry on as Germany coach
despite coming under fire at home for his country's disappointing
performances at the World Cup finals, Germany's top soccer official said on
Thursday.
German soccer federation (DFB) president Egidius Braun said he had had an
important talk with Vogts since the 3-0 quarterfinal defeat by Croatia last
Saturday and said the trainer would not be quitting.
"I talked to him for about half an hour on the phone on Tuesday. The main
question was: 'Have you got the courage and energy to take care of the
rebuilding of our national team?'" said Braun who has stayed in France for
meetings of world governing body FIFA.
"His answer was quite clear. He is available to do it. As far as I'm
concerned as DFB president, everything is sorted out. I see no better
national team coach than Vogts and that is why I have full confidence in
him."
Vogts brought one of the oldest German teams ever to the finals and the
former national youth team will need to make sweeping changes and bring in
younger players for the qualifying campaign for the 2000 European
championship.
The German federation is generally a conservative organization and there
have been few spectacular dismissals of coaches in the past.
But the Germans, three-times World Cup champions and three-times
runner-ups, are used to watching their teams reach the last four of finals
on a regular basis. Now they have lost in the quarterfinals at the last two
Cups.
Vogts came under fire from the German media again on Thursday, accused of
being a bad loser after his team's 3-0 defeat by Croatia.
"Berti, this is how you do it!" Germany's biggest-selling newspaper Bild
said, printing a picture of Dutch coach Guus Hiddink in an embrace with his
Brazilian
rival Mario Zagallo after the Netherlands
' defeat in Tuesday's semifinal.
Vogts was accused of showing no grace in defeat.
In an open letter to the German coach, the paper added: "We are no longer
one of the best teams in the world. In performance terms we are now between
Mexico and Paraguay."
Vogts has been spending a few days on holiday with his family on the Cote
d'Azur since the team left their training camp in Nice at the start of the
week.
He plans to return to Germany next week and the DFB is expected to hold its
World Cup post-mortum soon.
Asked if it was a crisis meeting, Braun said: "You can't talk about a
crisis but it was obvious before the World Cup that we were going to have
to make a new start after the finals."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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