In 1984, Franz Beckenbauer took over the German national football team. He had won the World Cup as a player, but he had no coaching license. The German Football Association, the DFB, named him Teamchef, team chief, rather than Bundestrainer, national coach. Rudi Völler, who later led the team, had no coaching license either. In his first spell in charge, he was listed on the official match sheet not as coach but as Teamchef.
sports
Exams for Hobbies
In 2024, 21,104 people in Germany took the state hunting exam. More than a fifth failed at the first attempt. The exam is known as the Grünes Abitur, the green Abitur. To fish, a person generally needs to prove expert knowledge, usually in an official fishing exam. The states differ. Several issue tourist fishing licenses without an exam. Lower Saxony generally requires no state fishing license, but the holders of fishing rights usually ask for proof of knowledge. In Lower Saxony, dog owners must prove expert knowledge. Since 1 July 2013, they pass a theory test before getting a dog and a practical test within the first year.
Students Who Studied the Opponent
For about seventeen years, students of the German Sport University Cologne helped prepare the German national football team for its opponents. The Spielanalyse-Team Köln, the game analysis team, began as a pilot project. It supported the coaching staff with systematic computer and video analyses of each opponent. About 1,000 students were trained in the program. The cooperation ended at the turn of the year 2022–23.
Something to Show
Jürgen Klinsmann came to FC Bayern Munich in 2008 with new concepts and ideas. On 27 April 2009, before the end of his first season, the club let him go. Jupp Heynckes, who had coached Bayern before, took over for the last five matches. Uli Hoeneß, the club’s general manager, explained the choice: Wir brauchen jetzt jemanden, der schon etwas vorzuweisen hat. We now need someone who already has something to show. He added: Jedes Konzept liest sich prima auf dem Papier. Every concept reads well on paper.
A Euro a Minute
German sports teams put a price on lateness. In 2024, Borussia Dortmund’s catalog of fines for the 2023–24 season spread on social media. Coming late to training, team routines or meetings cost 100 euros per minute. Coming late on match day cost 3,000 euros. Missing a club appointment cost 5,000 euros. The German women’s handball team at the 2025 home World Championship kept a smaller list. Whoever came late paid one euro, per minute.
The Football Professor
On 19 December 1998, Ralf Rangnick, then coach of SSV Ulm in the second division, was a guest on ZDF’s das aktuelle sportstudio. At a tactics board, he explained to the presenter Michael Steinbrecher how the Viererkette, the back four in a flat line, and pressing work. He explained in great detail. The appearance gave him a nickname he has kept to this day: der Fußballprofessor, the football professor.
The Referee’s Decision Is Final
German football has a word for a decision that cannot be reopened: Tatsachenentscheidung, a decision on the facts. On 18 October 2013, Stefan Kießling’s header for Leverkusen went into the Hoffenheim goal through a hole in the side netting, and the referee gave the goal. On 28 October 2013, the DFB sports court rejected Hoffenheim’s protest, because it was a decision on the facts by the referee, die nach dem Regelwerk endgültig sei, which is final under the rules. The famous exception came on 23 April 1994. Thomas Helmer of Bayern Munich was credited with a goal against Nürnberg although the ball had not crossed the line. The match was replayed, because the court found that the referee had not made a decision on the facts himself. He had relied, by eye contact, on the linesman, who wrongly believed the ball was in the goal.
Herberger’s Plan of 1954
At the World Cup of 1954 in Switzerland, the coach Sepp Herberger did not field his best team in the group match against Hungary. He had already planned for a deciding match against Turkey. Six regular players, among them the goalkeeper Toni Turek, Max Morlock and Hans Schäfer, were rested. Germany lost to Hungary 3 to 8. German Wikipedia calls it a taktisch geprägte Entscheidung, a tactical decision. In the team hotel in Spiez, Herberger had assigned the rooms himself. Germany then beat Turkey and went on to win the final in Bern against the same Hungarian team.
After Euro 2000
At the European Championship of 2000, the German national team went out in the group stage. The German Football Association responded with a plan for the long term. It expanded its talent program to 390 training centers for players aged eleven to seventeen. From 2001, youth academies were introduced in the Bundesliga, and from 2002 they were mandatory in the second division as well. Today every club in both leagues must run one to obtain its license. The academies were long seen as the origin of the golden generation that won the World Cup in 2014.
The Investor Deal That Was Called Off
In December 2023, the 36 clubs of the German Football League voted in a secret ballot to sell a share of a company holding their media rights to an investor. The deal needed a two-thirds majority, and it passed with exactly the 24 votes required. It was reported that the head of Hannover 96 had voted against his own club’s instruction. Fans protested in stadiums across the country with silence and with tennis balls and chocolate coins thrown onto the pitch. On 3 February 2024, a match between Hertha BSC and Hamburger SV was stopped for more than thirty minutes. On 21 February 2024, the league ended the process. Hans-Joachim Watzke, chairman of its supervisory board, said: Eine erfolgreiche Fortführung des Prozesses scheint in Anbetracht der aktuellen Entwicklungen nicht mehr möglich. (Given the current developments, a successful continuation of the process no longer seems possible.)