On 7 November 2009, the Süddeutsche Zeitung published an interview with the Bayern Munich defender Philipp Lahm that the club had not approved. Lahm criticized the quality of the squad, the transfer policy and the lack of a clear philosophy: Man darf Spieler nicht einfach kaufen, weil sie gut sind. (You cannot simply buy players because they are good.) Two days later, Lahm met the board. He apologized for the way he had done it and for the tone, and he accepted a fine. The club’s statement said that Lahm has accepted that it would have been better to express his opinion directly to the board. Lahm later revealed in his book that the fine was 50,000 euros.
sports
The Phantom Goal and the Goal-Line Camera
On 18 October 2013, in a Bundesliga match between Hoffenheim and Leverkusen, Stefan Kießling headed the ball into the side netting. It went through a hole in the net, and the referee gave a goal. The DFB sports court rejected Hoffenheim’s protest, because the referee’s decision on the facts is final. In spring 2014, the Bundesliga clubs voted on goal-line technology, and the proposal clearly failed. Cologne’s manager said the costs were too high to carry. That summer, the system was used in all twelve stadiums of the World Cup in Brazil. In December 2014, the clubs voted for it with a two-thirds majority. It has been used in the Bundesliga since the 2015–16 season.
The Club President in Prison
Uli Hoeneß was president of FC Bayern Munich, the most successful club in German football. In March 2014 he stood trial for tax evasion of 28.5 million euros. The court sentenced him to three years and six months. He stepped down as club president in March 2014. He began his prison sentence on June 2, 2014.
Klose and the Handball Goal
In the 2012–13 season, Miroslav Klose played for Lazio Rome in the Italian Serie A. In the fourth minute of a top match against Napoli, he scored with his hand. The Napoli players protested. Klose told the referee that the ball had touched his hand. The goal did not count, and Lazio lost 0 to 3. The German Football Association gave him its medal Fair ist mehr, fair is more, for the second time. Fiorentina gave him its Violette Karte, an award for honesty in sport.
The Federal Youth Games
The Bundesjugendspiele, the Federal Youth Games, are compulsory for pupils up to grade 10 at general schools. The name has been used since 1952. In the classic form, a table sets the minimum points for an Ehrenurkunde, a certificate of honor, or a Siegerurkunde, a winner’s certificate. A child with fewer points receives a certificate of participation. The child is measured against a published number. Since the 2023–24 school year, primary schools must use a different form. In it, children are ranked within their group, and the top 20 percent receive the certificate of honor.
Trapattoni’s press conference
On 10 March 1998, Giovanni Trapattoni, the Italian coach of Bayern Munich, gave a press conference in broken German. He criticized the performance of his own players in public and by name, among them Mehmet Scholl and Mario Basler. Was erlauben Strunz? How dare Strunz? A player who did not perform was schwach wie eine Flasche leer, weak like a bottle empty. He ended with Ich habe fertig, I have finished. That last sentence became a German saying. When Helmut Kohl was voted out of office, the SPD quoted it on a poster.
When the criticism comes back
On 6 September 2003, the German national team drew 0:0 in Iceland in a qualifier for the European Championship. On ARD, Gerhard Delling called the match a new Tiefpunkt, a low point, and Günter Netzer joined in the criticism. National coach Rudi Völler answered live on air. He accused the interviewer Waldemar Hartmann of having had drei Weizenbier, three wheat beers. After the 2014 World Cup match against Algeria, a ZDF reporter asked Per Mertesacker critical questions. He replied: Glauben Sie, unter den letzten 16 ist eine Karnevalstruppe?! Do you think there is a carnival troupe among the last 16? Then he said he would lie in the ice bath for three days.
Both answers turned on the questioner. Völler later apologized for his wording, but he kept his criticism of the coverage.
Lehmann’s Note
Germany played Argentina in the World Cup quarterfinal on 30 June 2006, at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. The match went to penalties. Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann had a sheet of hotel notepaper with the names of the Argentine penalty takers, written in pencil. Goalkeeping coach Andreas Köpke had drawn the information from a database of 13,000 penalties kept by the Dutch coach Huub Stevens. Köpke said: Wir haben nichts dem Zufall überlassen. “We left nothing to chance.” Utz Claassen bought the note for one million euros, and it is now shown at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn. Lehmann later admitted that the note was quite hard to read.
Coming Forward Too Late
German tax law gives immunity from punishment to a tax evader who corrects his tax returns in a Selbstanzeige, a self-disclosure. The immunity does not apply if the offense had already been discovered, in whole or in part, at that time, and the offender knew this or should have expected it (§ 371 AO). On 15 January 2013, his bank called Uli Hoeneß, the president of Bayern Munich, after a reporter from the magazine Stern had been asking questions at the bank. Early on 17 January 2013 he filed a self-disclosure. The tax office found that it was not a vollständige und einwandfreie Selbstanzeige, a complete and correct self-disclosure, and the court ruled it invalid. He was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for evading 28.5 million euros in tax. Hoeneß had said he filed on 12 January. That date later turned out to be untrue.
A Resignation on Facebook
On 27 November 2019, Jürgen Klinsmann was presented as the head coach of Hertha BSC. In January 2020 alone, the club invested a record 77 million euros. On 11 February 2020, Klinsmann announced on Facebook that he was resigning as head coach with immediate effect. The investor Lars Windhorst called the way he left unakzeptabel, unacceptable.