National coaches exchange views

By Mark Chaplin in Stockholm

The high-quality play seen at UEFA EURO 2004™ in Portugal gave national team football a timely boost at a moment when many experts see the discipline as dying in the face of the advance of club football.

Demands and pressure
Europe's national team coaches also heard at a key UEFA conference in Stockholm on Tuesday that the job of national-team coach and the demands on the coaches are becoming tougher than ever - with the result that many coaches stay in the post for shorter periods of time.

Study group
The points were made by members of UEFA's EURO technical study group at the sixth UEFA Conference for European National Team Coaches in the Swedish capital, which is being attended by national coaches and technical directors from all of UEFA's 52 member associations. The study group at the final round in Portugal comprised European coaching luminaries such as Roy Hodgson (England), Gérard Houllier (France), Anghel Iordanescu (Romania), Holger Osieck (Germany), György Mezey (Hungary), Jozef Venglos (Slovakia) and Berti Vogts (Germany/Scotland).

Complex and difficult
"The job of national coach has become such a high-intensity and pressurised job, that for many, it is a job involving a four-year cycle," said UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh after the day's proceedings. "There is no doubt that the job is more complex and difficult on the modern scene."

Particular pressures
National team coaches at EURO 2004™, including winner Otto Rehhagel from Greece and runner-up Luiz Felipe Scolari of Portugal, gave their views to their colleagues in special agenda topics. England's Sven-Göran Eriksson spoke of the particular pressures he faces in managing a football team faced with high public and media expectations, while Marcello Lippi, the new Italian coach, admitted he was on a new learning curve after years of coaching Italy's top club teams. Switzerland's Jakob Kuhn provided the example of the tasks facing the coach of a smaller country with a less well-stocked pool of players.

Merk's positive view
One of the more interesting aspects of the conference agenda was the opportunity given to German referee Markus Merk - who took charge of the EURO final between Portugal and Greece - to highlight his experiences in Portugal. He emphasised that UEFA's decision to appoint referee trios from the same country had been successful, and that relations between the referees and coaches had been excellent, despite the obvious pressure facing coaches at matches. Merk said that it had been a pleasure to deal with players and coaches in Portugal.

Preparation time
Delegates at the conference heard in discussion sessions that national team coaches often suffered from lack of preparation time between the end of the season and the start of a major tournament. Player tiredness, in particular among the 'star' players, had also been a factor in certain fancied teams in Portugal leaving the competition at an early stage. "The view was expressed that some of the best players, who should be performing at their best in the (EURO) championship, do not do so because they have not recovered from the domestic and European season," Roxburgh explained.

Variety of views
The national team coaches were asked to give their views to UEFA on a variety of issues. In particular, they called for further examination of offside and interfering with play in a move - known more popularly as "passive" offside. Some also favoured 23-man squads for qualifying matches, and argued that players should only be credited with own goals unless absolutely necessary - not including deflections or rebounds into goal via both the woodwork and a defending player.