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Markus Merk - a man of vision

The German FIFA World Cup referee on his pioneering children's project in India.

Markus Merk’s FIFA World Cup begins on Sunday with the Group H encounter between Japan and Russia in Yokohama. The German referee is looking to cement his reputation as one of the world’s top match officials. And, in a unique story, first published in the Official UEFA Champions League Magazine, Merk tells us about a fascinating and rewarding project in which he has been working to help children towards a better life in the Indian sub-continent.

The biographical notes tell us that Markus Merk’s 40th birthday was on 15 March 2002; that the qualified dentist from Kaiserslautern has been refereeing since he was 12 years old; made his Bundesliga debut in 1988; and has been a FIFA international referee since 1992, when he made his big-tournament debut at the Barcelona Olympics. Like most referees, he’s probably been told several times that he needs glasses. But, outside refereeing, Markus Merk is a man of vision.

Heading for India
Significantly, the notes also inform us that Merk lists his hobbies as ‘travelling and endurance tests’. Maybe that’s why he and his wife Birgit have devoted just about all their spare time during the last decade to jumping on a plane and heading for India. To pinpoint their exact destination, look for Madras on the map and trace your way down through the Tamil Nadu region towards Sri Lanka until you find a city which might be named Trichinopolis, Tiruchirapalli or, as Markus and the locals thankfully call it, Trichy. About 25km outside the city is an area which used to be open wasteland but isn’t any more. Having explained where, Merk now explains how and why…

Children’s homes
“Well, if you insist. At first, I didn’t want to talk about it. But it’s impossible to keep it a secret for ten years, especially now that referees have become much more public figures. It all started in 1991 when I heard that a German organisation was looking for dentists to help look after 2,500 kids in 35 children’s homes in southern India. I even remember the date when we flew out. It was during the night of the 15th to the 16th of January – in the Gulf War. Our route took us over Dubai, so I think there were about 30 of us on a very big plane! It was good to help improve the dental services and we went regularly, for three weeks or more, every time we could have a holiday together.

Turning point
The turning point came in 1993 when we bought, together with an Indian family, a plot of land of about 17,000 square metres. Nowadays, the size of the site has more than doubled. By the way, just to explain the thinking behind our doing something on our own, it was that people in Germany were donating money to causes and we knew that 50-75 per cent of the money was being lost on the way. Our idea was to make sure that 100 pfennigs of every mark went straight into real work. But the more important reason was that I was looking for a project. A project that fitted my philosophy and the way I really wanted to live my life. I really wanted to help disadvantaged children. But I didn’t want to put them into a school for two or three years and tell them that it was finished.

Kind of village
So my wife and I and the Indian family got to work on setting up a sort of village, which we called the Sogospatty, for the under-privileged local youngsters, encouraging them to help in the work, like designing it, digging wells and so on. Then we helped to set up agricultural projects and made sure we were taking care of medical health in the immediate region – let’s say within a radius of about 10km. The work flowed and the project really got off the ground – to the extent that, in 1996, we set up our own society in my home town of Kaiserslautern. We just called it Indienhilfe Kaiserslautern EV. That was how we set about financing the second part of the project – a school. Our philosophy has been to add one level to the education programme every year, so in 2001 we were up to the fifth grade and we are now up to six, with approximately 170 children. We have two buses of our own which pick the children up from their villages in the morning and we give them food, clothing material and a free education. Our aim is to have twelve levels of education and about 350 children. It’s a genuinely private project and last year we incorporated an orphanage, with about 30 children. I’ve also built two more orphanages for another twenty children. Those are the broad outlines of the project and, I have to admit, it’s easier to finance it now that people know about it than it was when we were trying to keep it quiet. A lot of the money comes from people in the world of sport.”

The situation must have made a big impact on you when you first went as a dentist for you to have invested a large slice of your life in the project?
Markus Mark:
“Yes, the dental work was the reason for going there. But after five or six years I realised I didn’t want to do dental work out there any more. We’ve been going there for two spells every year – once in the summer and once during the winter break – and I felt that I didn’t want to spend that time just on dental work. Nowadays, Indian dentists and medical staff come to the village once or twice a month to take care of the children – and everybody else in the area.”

 Is your wife happy about spending so many vacations on the project?
“Very happy. Since the project started she has done a lot of work. And it wouldn’t have been possible without her. For example, she has just been, in February, to a project in northern India which has nothing to do with our children’s village. She joined a German medical team which visited a hospital where they operate on polio victims. She was there for two weeks – and, for once, we haven’t been during the winter break. I had an ankle injury during the first match of the Bundesliga season and the doctors expected me to be out for six months. So we didn’t think it would be possible to go to India. In fact, I was back after two months but, in any case, the project doesn’t require so many visits as it did while we were building it up. For the last ten years, we’ve maybe had three days in Munich or a couple of days somewhere else, but the rest of our holidays have been spent in India.”

Do you involve football in the project?
“In the children’s village? I’ve found it very difficult! I tried it last year. We had a two-day event involving running, jumping and so on. But it was completely new for them. If you gave them a ball, sure, they would play with it. But not with the feet. They would throw it or catch it – there’s not a footballing culture in the area. In any case, this is not a footballing project for me. It’s a different world where I shut myself off from football. Sometimes I come back on to the pitch in a big stadium after two or three weeks at the village and almost immediately get into a big discussion about a throw-in in midfield. It’s a very good contrast, a very good experience. Because you learn that every decision you have to take is, at that particular moment, very important. I really enjoy working in two totally different worlds.”

Financing the project must also have taken a lot of time and effort?
“Yes. And strength. Fortunately, football has been a great help. And nowadays I don’t have any problems with financing the project. Most of the building work is done, though we want to have one or two more school buildings within the next couple of years. My intention at the outset was not to make it a personal thing but to show people that it was a worthwhile project. What I mean is that this is not a one-man-show. If I finish today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the project will still keep going.”

It’s been a story of continuous growth and you seem very fulfilled by it. But have there been moments of doubts and uncertainty?
“Indeed. But I have learned one important thing – to check everything you do over and over again. Not just in the project but also in life – in your profession, in sport…You need to check every match and analyse your own performance. Everything you want to do in the Third World, you have to check it. You have to think about what constitutes real help. And that is something you have to learn by being there, getting to know the people and working together. You shouldn’t try to teach them your mentality. You can certainly bring in your thoughts, but you have to check what is genuinely beneficial for them. So that is why they get traditional help in the village – nothing special, no presents. We don’t have – or want - a foster-parent system which could produce situations where one child has a small doll and another one has a big doll. That sort of thing is not necessary or productive. Our buildings are nothing special. I was going to say ‘poor’ but that’s not quite right. The buildings are traditional. The main reason for the project is the children themselves and we are not too ambitious on their behalf. In other words, we don’t try to impose excessively high levels of education. Maybe 5 per cent or 10 per cent of the children need a higher level of education and we hope to be able to take care of them in the future. Last year we bought another area which is nearer the big city, with a view to building houses for the children who could benefit from a higher education and could go on to receive it in the city as opposed to the rural area where the original project is located. Otherwise, we concentrate on giving the children a normal, basic education and then take care that they can get a job. That may be agricultural skills, technical qualifications and even easy things like repairing a bicycle. Those are small things which can help them to live a satisfactory life in an area where lots of young people are given a loan by a big company and then spend the rest of their working life paying it back. Our aim is to change their life for the better by preparing them for other opportunities.”

How has it changed your life?
“Change? Hmmm…I’m not sure. I think you are born with certain ideas. A lot of people are prepared to help the under-privileged but I never wanted it just to be a question of money. When I was a boy I had this vision of working in a project like this. So my satisfaction is having converted that vision into reality. That makes me feel happy. But I have to admit that these last ten years have represented a hard job. I think the big change is that you’re responsible, not only for your own child (our son, Benedikt, is only two and has not been to India yet) but also, in another way, for the children in a whole area. And it’s only a small spot in a vast country like India. The nice thing is that the children don’t know anything about Markus Merk the referee. They just live there and some of them, after a few years, call us ‘father’ and ‘mother’. That is a big change. But after ten years I have learned a different way of thinking after spending the early years of the project asking myself exactly what I wanted from my life. What I have discovered is that I can do things my own way and see that it works. That means I feel stronger as a person than I did ten years ago. Also, I have found that I am really able to switch on and switch off to very different situations and that has given me inner strength and a great sense of freedom.”

Switching on and switching off between two vastly different worlds! One minute you’re surrounded by millionaire superstars on a football pitch and the next you’re with under-privileged children in the Third World…
“Exactly. I have learned to live with this contrast.”

You mentioned earlier having players arguing about a throw-in in midfield. Can you take that seriously when you have experienced other attitudes, other needs, other perspectives?
“That’s what I mean about the importance of switching on and off. You have to be able to do it totally – otherwise you lose. You won’t be as much use in either place. Especially when you’re refereeing. It’s totally impossible for me to think ‘it’s only a throw-in, it doesn’t matter’. If you start to think that way, it’s no longer possible to be a referee. If there’s a decision to be taken about a throw-in, then at this moment in this stadium it’s the important decision to take. But knowing the other side of life gives me inner strength. In India, my experience in football helps me and on the pitch my experience in India helps me. It’s a bit like a nicely-balanced passing movement between one and the other. It’s the perfect one-two…”

This interview first appeared in the Official UEFA Champions League Magazine – Group Stage 2 2001-2002
© UEFA 2002

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