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'I lost my patience and came home' Togo boss says he quit because of team car spat
Posted: Tuesday February 01, 2000 05:42 PM
ACCRA, Ghana (AP) -- With most of its players based in Europe and 11 foreign coaches at the helm, FIFA president Sepp Blatter isn't alone in fearing that the African Nations Cup is losing its unique, quirky character. But the bizarre resignation of Togo coach Gottlieb Goeller shows the 16-nation tournament is still a world away from the order of European soccer. Goeller, who quit hours before a vital Jan. 27 match against Ghana, said he walked out because of a row over the use of an official team car. "I used that car every day to go to training and suddenly I was ordered to go on the team bus," Goeller said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home in Togo's capital Lome. "I waited in the hot sun for an hour for a taxi," Goeller grumbled. "I lost my patience and came home." The 64-year-old German, in his fifth stint as Togo coach, accuses the country's soccer chiefs of incompetence and nepotism. His biggest spat was with Rock Gnassingbe, son of the Togolese president and head of the country's soccer federation. "That man doesn't know anything about sport or administration and treated us all like slaves," Goeller said. That's not quite how the Togolese see it. "In the weeks leading up to African Nations Cup, Gottlieb's behavior became very bizarre," Horatio Freitas, Togo's minister of culture, youth and sports, told The Associated Press. "He became nervous, excitable and was continually shouting at people. I think the pressure began to affect him." Goeller didn't attempt to hide his contempt for his former bosses, often lambasting Gnassingbe in front of bemused guests at the team's Accra hotel. The former Nurenberg defender, who plans to spend his retirement writing music and poetry in his Lome apartment, points out that he is the only coach to have ever led the tiny West African country through the qualifying stages of Africa's premier soccer tournament, in 1972, 1984, 1998 and 2000. Freitas isn't impressed. "We still love Goeller, but we are very disappointed because he betrayed us," the minister said. "He is a little like an old dog who has lost all his teeth but keeps biting. But he will never come back to coach us again. Never."
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