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Changing of the guard

Reeling from early Euro exit, national team looks for leadership

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 25th, 2008 issue

ISIFA
Koller bids a final farewell to the fans in Geneva, June 15, after the national team's loss to Turkey.
In the aftermath of the national team’s heartbreaking loss to Turkey at Euro 2008, the team expected a leadership vacuum to open up, with the planned retirement of head coach Karel Brückner and expected retirement of Jan Koller, the country’s all-time leading scorer.
What it did not expect is its futility in filling that void, particularly the Czech Football Association’s (ČMFS) desperate search for a head coach after its failure to sign internationally successful coach Ivan Hašek.
Despite the fact that Brückner announced his retirement plans months earlier, the ČMFS has been caught off guard, unable to find the right candidate to succeed the coach.
In its latest move, Vlastimil Košťál, the national team’s outgoing manager, attempted to bring Hašek onboard. The move came despite the bad blood between the two, which goes back to when Košťál and Hašek ran against each other for the ČMFS presidency in April 2005.
During the campaign, Hašek framed himself as a reformer who would sweep away the standing ČMFS management, which was in power during repeated corruption scandals. While he represented a fresh face, Košťál was closely tied to the previous managers.
However, Košťál bested Hašek by teaming up with underrated candidate Pavel Mokrý. Mokrý eventually won the presidency and Košťál became a vice president. After his loss, Hašek said he wouldn’t work in Czech soccer under the new management.
After several candidates refused to take over the national team from Brückner, Košťál sought to bury the hatchet. He initiated talks with Hašek, who is currently the head coach of Al Ahli in the United Arab Emirates.
“Hašek has been wanted as the national team’s head coach by the entire nation,” Košťál said. When presenting his offer, Košťál said he ignored the controversies from the 2005 elections.
“I value Ivan as a soccer expert,” Košťál said. “The elections were about politics, and I don’t mix up expertise and politics.”
Košťál said he offered Hašek the opportunity to serve as head coach as well as national team director, overseeing all the national teams in different age categories.
“I could not offer more from my side,” Košťál said. He said that the majority of the ČMFS board of directors was ready to support Hašek.
Hašek was not so eager to work under Košťál. While he agreed to a 90-minute meeting, he said afterwards that he rejected the offer.
“I cannot accept the offer at the moment,” Hašek said. “The reason is that I don’t agree with the way Czech soccer has been managed over the past four years. It has been stagnating and the current managers do it harm. … I would not be able to cooperate with them.”
Hašek refuted speculation that he was afraid of taking over the national team after some of the team’s leaders, including Koller, had ended their national team careers.
“Czech soccer has a good nucleus of players,” he said, “for example, boys from the Under-20 team that won silver medals in the World Championship last year.”
Looking abroad
Hašek’s refusal made the ČMFS postpone voting for the national team coach until mid-July. Foreign candidates are now being considered, Košťál said.
In mid-June, Košťál said that Matthias Sammer, the German Soccer Association’s sports manager who previously coached Borussia Dortmund, was among the candidates. “He used to guide [Czech team captain] Tomáš Rosický in Dortmund and he is familiar with Czech soccer,” he said.
Sammer turned down the offer, saying he did not want to return to coaching at the moment.
Košťál said that another Bundesliga coaching guru, Klaus Toppmöller, has expressed interest in guiding the national team. Toppmöller most recently worked as the head coach of Georgia’s national team.
While considering hiring a foreign coach of the national team for the first time in history, Košťál said that three other candidates to guide the team were local. Those are Petr Rada, who worked as an assistant coach to Brückner; Karel Jarolím, who guided Slavia this season; and former national team head coach and Sparta president Jozef Chovanec.
“It’s still an open question,” Košťál said.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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