World Cup 2022: Germany’s sporting director Oliver Bierhoff resigns after exit

Oliv­er Bier­hoff has become the first vic­tim of an ear­ly exit from the FIFA World Cup, accept­ing the res­ig­na­tion of the gen­er­al man­ag­er of the Ger­man nation­al team and academy.

The Ger­man fed­er­a­tion announced on Mon­day that Bier­hoff had agreed to an ear­ly ter­mi­na­tion of his con­tract. He was due to have his con­tract expire at the 2024 Euro­pean Championships.

Ger­many will host the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in 2024, but fol­low­ing last year’s Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships, they have been elim­i­nat­ed from the World Cup group stage for two con­sec­u­tive tour­na­ments, rais­ing ques­tions about their team’s leadership.

Bier­hoff has been coach of the fed­er­a­tion for 18 years, hav­ing tak­en over as men’s coach in 2004, two years after the for­mer strik­er played his last game for Ger­many. In 2018, he was in charge of the All Japan team and acad­e­my, and was pro­mot­ed again this year.

“Mr Bier­hoff has done an excel­lent job,” fed­er­a­tion pres­i­dent Bernd Neuen­dorf said in a state­ment. “He rep­re­sents a great moment, even if the last com­pe­ti­tion did not live up to the goals of the sport. His work will always be asso­ci­at­ed with the suc­cess of the World Cup in Brazil.”

When Ger­many won the 2014 World Cup, Bier­hoff launched the team in Cam­poba­ia, a resort town in the north­east­ern part of Brazil. I’m here.

Sub­se­quent attempts at sim­i­lar team camps, how­ev­er, did not pro­duce the same results. Ger­many have been knocked out at the first hur­dle as the defend­ing cham­pi­ons at the 2018 World Cup, and their per­for­mance has slipped since then.

“Over the past four years, we have not been able to build on our past suc­cess­es and please our fans again. That deci­sion turned out to be the wrong one,” he said. “No one regrets it more than I do. I take responsibility.

A 1–1 draw with Spain and a 4–2 win over Cos­ta Rica after los­ing to Japan in their open­er in Qatar were not enough to keep Ger­many out of Group E.

Bier­hoff scored 37 goals in 70 caps for Ger­many, two of which came as a sub­sti­tute in Ger­many’s 2–1 defeat of the Czech Repub­lic in the Euro 1996 final.

Neuen­dorf pre­sent­ed Bier­hoff and coach Han­si Flick with a sports analy­sis of the Qatar Games and rec­om­men­da­tions for Euro 2024 in Ger­many before return­ing home last Fri­day after Ger­many’s World Cup failure.

Flick­’s future as man­ag­er is uncer­tain, with the fed­er­a­tion say­ing the com­mit­tee will con­sid­er Bier­hof­f’s suc­ces­sion plan.