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Oliver Bierhoff after returning from Qatar
Photo:
LUKAS BARTH / REUTERS
Four days after the national soccer team was eliminated from the preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar, Oliver Bierhoff took the consequences.
The 54-year-old is leaving the German Football Association after 18 years, both parties agreed on Monday to terminate the contract, which runs until 2024.
"I'm paving the way for new decisions," Bierhoff said in a statement on Monday evening: "Some decisions that we were convinced of have not turned out to be the right ones.
Nobody regrets that more than me.
I take responsibility for that.«
The top official thus revised the attitude he expressed immediately after the end of the World Cup on Thursday that he wanted to head for the 2024 European Championships at home as the next big goal.
Bierhoff vacates the post as DFB director responsible for the national teams and the academy before the crisis talks with DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke announced for the middle of the week.
The DFB committees will discuss the succession plan.
It was initially unclear what consequences Hansi Flick's resignation would have for the future as national coach.
Bierhoff came to the DFB in 2004, in a role that the association had never seen before.
As team manager, he played a key role in the summer fairy tale at the home World Cup two years later alongside national coach Jürgen Klinsmann.
With great success he created a spirit of optimism for the DFB-Elf, which ultimately culminated in the 2014 World Cup triumph in Brazil with Joachim Löw as national coach.
More soon at SPIEGEL.de.
kyo