In autumn 2012, after a 2:0 win over Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich’s sporting director Matthias Sammer said the team had not played gallig enough, with enough bite, and had been lätschern, limp. Coach Jupp Heynckes disagreed with how he had done it, and told him so. Mit der Form, der Art und Weise war ich nicht einverstanden. Das habe ich ihm auch gesagt. I did not agree with the form and the manner. I told him that too. Er weiß, dass es wichtig ist, diese Dinge in geschlossenen Räumen anzusprechen. He knows it is important to raise these things behind closed doors. That season Bayern won the league, the cup and the Champions League.
sports
No Beauty
Herbert Grönemeyer’s song Bochum comes from his 1984 album 4630 Bochum. It is a song of love for the city. It also states plainly that the city is not beautiful and that it is grey from work. Since 1992 the song has been played before every kickoff at VfL Bochum.
Kept After Relegation
In the 2014/15 season, SC Freiburg finished 17th and was relegated from the Bundesliga. The club kept its coach, Christian Streich. One season later, Freiburg came back up as second-division champions. The Bundesliga’s own website later wrote: Dieses Vertrauen machte sich rückblickend mehr als bezahlbar. In hindsight, this trust more than paid off. Streich stayed head coach for twelve years. When he announced his departure in 2024, he spoke of 29 years at the club.
A Promise Kept at 89
Henry Kissinger was born in Fürth, and his family fled Germany in 1938. He had promised to come and watch the local football club, SpVgg Greuther Fürth, once it reached the Bundesliga. In September 2012, at the age of 89, he came to Fürth’s home game against Schalke 04. Der 89-Jährige hielt sich nun an den Ehrenkodex: ein Mann, ein Wort, wrote Der Spiegel. The 89-year-old kept to the code of honor, one man, one word.
Off-Duty Conduct
On 10 September 2009 the Federal Labor Court ruled that a municipal worker’s off-duty drug offenses did not justify his dismissal. A labor law firm summarized the principle: Den Arbeitgeber hat es deshalb grundsätzlich nicht zu interessieren, ob der Arbeitnehmer „privat“ eine Straftat begeht. As a rule, it is not the employer’s concern whether the employee commits a crime in private. The court noted that the result could differ for employees with official or representative duties. German law calls this außerdienstliches Verhalten, off-duty conduct. There is an exception when off-duty conduct harms the employment relationship. In 2017 VfB Stuttgart and its player Kevin Großkreutz parted by mutual agreement after he was involved in a fight in his free time.
Call Me Julian
In July 2021, as the new coach of Bayern Munich, Julian Nagelsmann told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag: Die Spieler dürfen mich gerne duzen, ich höre meinen Vornamen tatsächlich auch lieber als meinen Nachnamen. The players are welcome to say du to me, I actually prefer hearing my first name to my last name. He added: Siezen oder duzen ist für mich in den modernen Zeiten kein Indikator mehr für Autorität oder nicht. For me, in modern times, Sie or du is no longer an indicator of authority. Even here, the offer of the du came from the coach.
The Referee’s Report
In amateur football in the Nienburg district of Lower Saxony, the referee must complete and release the online match report at the latest one hour after the end of the game. Every sending-off requires a special report within 48 hours of the final whistle. A referee who fails to file is penalized without further inquiry. A late report must give the reason for the delay.
A License for the Club Coach
A coach in a German sports club can earn a license under the guidelines of the German Olympic Sports Confederation. The first level requires 120 teaching units of training. The license is valid for four years. To renew it, the holder must complete at least 15 teaching units of further training. In the Rhine-Berg district, for example, a holder whose license has lapsed for more than five years must normally take the full course again.
Four Wrong Calls
In September 2022 the German Football Association admitted four wrong decisions by its referees in the Bundesliga in one statement. Peter Sippel, the referees’ sporting director for the Bundesliga, went through the cases one by one. A penalty against Cologne for an alleged handball by Luca Kilian, in the game against Union Berlin, was klar und offensichtlich falsch, clearly and obviously wrong. In the game between Hertha and Leverkusen, the video assistant should have intervened after the clear images and recommended an on-field review. The news site t-online called the statement kurios, curious.
Not Yet a Swimmer
The entry-level swimming badge in Germany is the Seepferdchen, the seahorse. The requirements are fixed. The child jumps in from the edge of the pool and swims 25 meters, brings up an object from shoulder-deep water with the hands, and knows the pool rules. The German Life Saving Association, the DLRG, adds a warning. Das Seepferdchen ist noch kein Nachweis des sicheren Schwimmens. The seahorse is not yet proof of safe swimming. Only with the bronze badge does a child count as a sicherer Schwimmer, a safe swimmer.