Germans Offer Assitance, German coach for Azkals

THE Deutscher Futball-Bund (DFB), the governing body of German football, has sounded off its intention to help the national men’s football team, prompting Azkals team manager Dan Stephen Palami to fly over in January for a two-day exploratory talks.

Besides talking with DFB officials, Palami will also meet up with Fil-Germans Manuel Ott, Mark Drinkuth and Stephan Schrock to possibly suit them up for the Azkals’ Asian Football Federation Challenge Cup that kicks off on February 9 in Bacolod City in a home-and-away series with Mongolia.

The word is that the DFB has also offered to the national team the services of head coach Hans Michael Weiss, the current U-17 coach of Rwanda, as well as the technical director of the Rwanda Football Association.

Weiss, a 45-year-old native of Dannenfels, has also worked with the Chinese Football Association and the Kyoto Purple Sanga of the Japan Football League, among many others.

Weiss has also served an internship with Spanish giants Real Madrid, English football club Arsenal, Argentina’s River Plate and the Bundesliga’s FC Kaiserslautern.

The leadership controversy at the Philippine Football Federation (PFF), meanwhile, remained fever pitch even in the holidays with two Fifa legal eagles coming over for a quick one-day inquiry on what has transpired in the federation.

Fabienne Moser-Frei, Fifa head of corporate counsel, and My Dung Nguyen, Asian Football Confederation legal director, flew in on Thursday and met with PFF officials led by interim president Mariano Araneta.

But the two officials refused to comment about their investigation.

“We’re here to hear all sides,” said Moser-Frei in her only statement to the BusinessMirror. “Then we’ll make a report.”

Their mission was to conduct an overnight fact-finding mission on the issue that has led to a testy exchange of facsimile letters between Fifa president Joseph Blatter and AFC head Mohammad Bin-Hammam.

According to PFF secretary-general Ramon Manuel, the two lawyers were only informed the day before about their quick mission on the day of their departure.

As soon as the legal counsels arrived, they went to the PFF House of Football in Barangay Oranbo, Pasig City, to conduct interviews with available PFF board members. They verified documents and watched the video of the seventh PFF Ordinary Congress on November 27, 2010, where Jose Mari Martinez was removed and replaced as president.

Business Mirror