FAS appoints ex East German spy and informant as national coach?

[Rogue Trader]

Bernd Stange unveiled as new head coach of the Singapore football team

Stange has a wealth of experience in coaching since starting as a youth coach with East German club Carl Zeiss Jena in 1970. He led the former East German national team from 1984 to 1988

By Wang Meng Meng
The Straits Times
Wednesday, May 15, 2013

SINGAPORE - After five months without a coach, the Singapore national football team is set to be trained by 65-year-old German Bernd Stange, who will be unveiled by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) at Jalan Besar Stadium on Wednesday evening.

 

[Rogue Trader]

Belarus boss Bernd Stange accused of spying for East German Stasi
When you have worked for Saddam Hussein and been accused of spying for the East German Stasi, football doesn’t seem scary any more.

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When you have worked for Saddam Hussein and been accused of spying for the East German Stasi, football doesn’t seem scary any more.

And the man charged with running England’s blossoming World Cup campaign off the rails in Minsk this evening is not going to let Fabio Capello’s reputation put the frighteners on him. Bernd Stange’s story is the stuff of a novelist, rather than the bog-standard sporting biographies.

But the 60-year-old has the chance to write a truly unforgettable chapter at the Dinamo Stadium – one that, in football terms at least, could arguably surpass all of his other bizarre adventures.

It’s an unlikely tale of sport and politics including working indirectly for two of the true monsters of the 20th century, Communist hardliner Erich Honecker and Saddam, the tyrant of the Tigris.

According to Stasi files uncovered in 1992, when the former East Germany coach was working for Hertha Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he had been on the payroll of the feared secret police during his spells with the national team and Carl Zeiss Jena.

Those files declared Stange had the code name "Kurt Wegner" and was tasked by the Stasi with informing on his players.

Stange decamped for Ukraine, Australia and Oman before arriving in Baghdad as coach to the Iraqi team on the eve of the second Gulf War. He fled the country as war broke out, returning after the fall of Saddam.

But he found himself once again castigated back home in Germany after a photograph taken in front of a large picture of a smiling Hussein went round the world.

"I was accused of being Saddam Hussein’s right-hand man," said Stange. "But do you know where Saddam’s true helpers are now? Either in prison or pushing up daisies.

"I’m just a coach, and the Iraqi national team was one of the stages of my career." Now Stange is 15 months into the latest of those stages, employed by a country where President Alexander Lukashenko was accused by the US State Department of ruling "Europe’s only remaining outpost of tyranny".

Stange insists he is simply doing a job, having taken Belarus up 35 places in the FIFA world rankings to a current all-time high of 59th.

He said: "I have worked for communist regimes, a dictator, capitalists and for a sultanate. But my work is always the same. It’s only ever about one thing – putting the ball in the net."

While Stange is without his one international star, Barcelona’s former Arsenal schemer Alexander Hleb, he insists his underdogs can put the bite on the Three Lions.

Last season Belarus beat a Dutch side who had already qualified for Euro 2008.

They have also drawn with Argentina and Germany, losing to Ukraine in their opening World Cup qualifier only through Andriy Shevchenko’s penalty in the depths of injury time. Stange said: "In a group with sides like England, Croatia and Ukraine, our objective is to surprise the big teams, to put in a good performance.

"That’s what we have been able to do so far and we will try to continue, but we lack consistency and just don’t have enough good players at our disposal.

"But I’m always a big optimist. We have a very young team but we will do everything. The stadium will be full, we will try to do all that we can.

"Our goal is to win, especially in Minsk. With 40,000 fans we want to make a party."

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

This is hilarious! With all the Coaches out their in the market, the FAS choose this guy?

Singapore is always bragging on about "world class this and world class that", but when it comes to National Football, we are clearly a (third) world class nation.
Btw, I have never heard of this guy.

Looks like I will have to resort to Google.

 

[The_Hypocrite]

Why didnt the get fandi? N is not east germans famous for doping? Guess singkieland is trying to bring sports to a real 'high'

 

[Narong Wongwan]

FAS president is deadwood mat gangbanger zain nordin....enough said.
They want angmo but want cheap....not many comes cheaper than raddy.

 

[PrinceCharming]

Why didnt the get fandi? N is not east germans famous for doping? Guess singkieland is trying to bring sports to a real 'high'

I support getting Fandi.

 

[laksaboy]

This is hilarious! With all the Coaches out their in the market, the FAS choose this guy?

You gotta think from the coaches' perspective. Who in their right mind would want to taint their managerial career by taking up the Singapore national team coach job? The youth program, scouting network etc is in total shambles. And the training infrastructure is crap. You think renowned coaches such as Guus Hiddink will come?

 

[scroobal]

This reminds of DBS Bank who hired A Frenchman to be CEO with a misleading qualification, the disqualified medical doctor who is a Prof in NUS . And as these guys will not admit to anything , it will be business as usual.

 

[Suspicion]

 

[Rogue Trader]

You gotta think from the coaches' perspective. Who in their right mind would want to taint their managerial career by taking up the Singapore national team coach job?

The truth is due to his past political associations, this guy's career in most western countries is gone. Maybe some former soviet states or clubs will accept him, but nobody in Schengen europe or Americas will entertain him. So he's plying his trade in Asia and the middle east.

Singapore has money to splash on angmors, with no fixed performance targets... so he should be laughing his way to the bank now.

 

[Poomer]

Anyone remembers GOAL 2010, where SG was supposed to enter the World Cup by 2010?

Introduced by PM Goh last time, and now, never to be mentioned again. Like most government policies, these goals are used to mislead the people, and if they can't be met, just pretend it never happened. No worries, no KPIs and no one gets sacked. Lovely ain't it.

http://www.redsports.sg/2009/11/19/singapore-2010-world-cup-football/

In his 1998 National Day Rally speech, PM Goh, inspired by the French victory in 1996 with a group of players led by Zinedine Zidane who is of Algerian extraction, said:

“Last year I told you Singapore would never have a chance in the World Cup, because the rules require all players to be citizens. But after watching the French victory, I have changed my mind.

“Maybe if we change our immigration criteria to bring in top football talent and make them citizens, then one day we too can get into the finals. In fact we intend to do just this, to bring in sports talent.”

By 2006, even with the Foreign Talent Scheme in place, the World Cup goal had been abandoned.

The Foreign Talent Scheme, however, has now put us within touching distance of a place in the 2011 Asian Cup. If Singapore qualifies, it will be a historic first.

 

[laksaboy]

Anyone remembers GOAL 2010, where SG was supposed to enter the World Cup by 2010?

Introduced by PM Goh last time, and now, never to be mentioned again. Like most government policies, these goals are used to mislead the people, and if they can't be met, just pretend it never happened. No worries, no KPIs and no one gets sacked. Lovely ain't it.

http://www.redsports.sg/2009/11/19/singapore-2010-world-cup-football/

Goal 2010 was just delusional talk from Mah Bow Tan. Expect nothing good from that squinty rat-faced twat.

 

[Poomer]

Another overpaid, white trash plumber to try seal the leak in the already sinking ship.

For fuck sake, combine the Malaysian and Singapore league, and maybe things might get going again. After all, we like to bash the other sides on either side of the causeway. Close down the S-league which has attendance comparable to the tenth division in English football.

edit: ok maybe an exaggeration, but maybe the fifth or sixth division.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Close down the S-league which has attendance comparable to the tenth division in English football.

English junior schoolboys league got more attendance than S league matches

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

You gotta think from the coaches' perspective. Who in their right mind would want to taint their managerial career by taking up the Singapore national team coach job? The youth program, scouting network etc is in total shambles. And the training infrastructure is crap. You think renowned coaches such as Guus Hiddink will come?

True, or at the very least, give Fandi Ahmad a shot. He should have intimate knowledge of how the system works from grassroots upwards.
On reflection, it's wishful thinking that a high profile European manager would take up the job but having said that $$$ speaks volumes in the game these days.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

Goal 2010 was just delusional talk from Mah Bow Tan. Expect nothing good from that squinty rat-faced twat.

I remember this objective vividly.

 

[zeebjii]

I remember this objective vividly.

They backtracked and said goal 2010 is an aspiration (meaning pipe dream), not a target.

 

[HTOLAS]

Anabolic steroids anyone?

 

[Narong Wongwan]

True, or at the very least, give Fandi Ahmed a shot. He should have intimate knowledge of how the system works from grassroots upwards.
On reflection, it's wishful thinking that a high profile European manager would take up the job but having said that $$$ speaks volumes in the game these days.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

This episode just mirrors our current fucked up FT policies doesn't it?
Qualified local overlooked in favour of some trash FT.

 

[zeddy]

This is a ridiculous appointment..

Anyone remember how the FAS and the media crowed about the credentials of Jan Poulsen the former asst coach of the triumphant Danish team that won the Euro 92..???

In the end he turned to be a big flop as our National team football coach..

PAP politicians should not be appointed guardian of our National Game..

We need passionate and genuine fans like N Ganesan, Patrick Ang, Teo Hock Seng and not shorty fucktards from the PAP like MBT and Zainudin..