FAS President and MP Zainudin Nordin (left) with new Singapore Head Coach and ex-Starsi informer, Bernd Stange (Photo FAS).
The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced 2 weeks ago (15 May) that it has appointed Bernd Stange as the next National Team Head Coach on a two-year contract. Mr Stange replaced the previous head coach, Raddy Avramovic, who retired after the Lions lifted the ASEAN Football Federation’s Suzuki Cup in Dec last year.
The 65-year-old German coach was said to have achieved several remarkable results during his term as national coach of Belarus. He has also coached the national teams of East Germany and Iraq.
Mr Stange said, “I am deeply honoured to have been appointed from a pool of more than 100 qualified candidates. It was a rigorous process which enabled both FAS and I to have a clear understanding of each other’s objectives and goals, and I am both impressed and motivated by the professionalism, vision and footballing goals of the Association.”
He added, “I am looking forward with excitement to playing a role to further develop football in this beautiful country.”
FAS President and MP Zainudin Nordin said, “Bernd is one of the most respected coaches in Europe today and he brings with him a wealth of international experience, ability and track record of building and managing successful teams despite the constraints.”
“As we mentioned previously, we have a rigorous recruitment process in place to ensure that we select only the best available person. Through our own contacts and referrals from our partners including FIFA, UEFA and several leading Football Associations, we received applications from many qualified candidates who, together with those submitted by Sports Recruitment International, were part of the long list.”
“We will support Bernd to the best of our abilities and work closely with him as we strive towards the goals spelt out in the Strategic Plan as well as the mid-term and immediate targets we have set.”
Informer working for Stasi
In 1982 before the Berlin Wall went down, Mr Stange was appointed head coach of East Germany national team after years working as assistant coach and head coach of the Under 21s.
After the unification of Germany in the late 80s, he returned to his former football club FC Carl Zeiss Jena and later moved to coach another club, Hertha BSC. Then in 1992, his old ties as an informant for the dreaded East German secret police, the Stasi, surfaced.
According to Stasi files uncovered in 1992, he had been on the payroll of the feared secret police before the unification of Germany. Those files declared Stange had the code name “Kurt Wegner” and was tasked by the Stasi with informing on his players, who may have criticised the East German government or looked to defect. [Link] [Link].
According to other Stasi files for 1976, he not only volunteered to break into a flat to steal a diary, but also betrayed a family friend’s plans to flee to the West.
Four years after Jörg Berger, Stange’s friend and fellow manager, had fled to West Germany via Yugoslavia, he received a phone call from Stange, who asked him about his knowledge of current East German players. This 1984 conversation was then used by the Stasi as evidence that Berger planned to help players defect, placing him in considerable danger. “Stange was already the national coach and had no need to do this,” said Berger, after his files emerged. “He was just career-obsessed and it was also about money.”
When the extent of his Stasi involvement was revealed in 1995, Stange lost his job and became persona non grata in German football scene. He then left Germany and went overseas, coaching and being team managers in various places in the world including Ukraine, Australia, Oman, Iraq, Cyprus, Belarus and now Singapore.
In July 2007 Stange revived concerns about his judgment by becoming Belarus coach. Since Alexander Lukashenko came to power in 1994, Belarus has been described as Europe’s last dictatorship, whose human-rights abuses include the imprisonment and disappearance of opposition leaders, media censorship and undemocratic elections. “I couldn’t care less about that,” Stange stated bluntly. “I’m the national manager of a country with a huge football tradition and that’s all that counts. My working conditions are as good as anything that I’ve experienced in my long football career.” [Link]
TR Emeritus
*Article first appeared on www.TREmeritus.com