The German Football Association yesterday announced the resignation of Oliver Bierhoff, sporting director of the German Football Association, after the German national team was eliminated from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in the first round, and Bierhoff and the German Football Association reached an agreement “to terminate the contract, which was supposed to operate until 2024. “For this reason, I will not leave without the necessary self-criticism,” Bierhoff, one of Germany’s most famous former players, said in his resignation letter Monday night. Over the past four years, we have not been able to build on previous successes and give the fans a reason to rejoice again. The former sports director thanked the people who supported him, expressing regret over the performance of the German national team in the finals of the Russian 2018 and Qatar 2022 championships, which “did not reach the level of previous successes.” Bierhoff added: “Some of the decisions we were convinced were wrong. No one regrets more than me. I take responsibility.” He continued, “I’m paving the way for a new direction.” Hans-Joachim Watzke, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the German Football League, thanked Bierhoff for his years of service with the federation, and DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said: “Berhoff provided excellent service.” Bierhoff is an integral part of German football, scoring 37 goals in 70 international matches, and was part of the team that won the 1996 European Championship and helped lift the trophy by scoring twice in the final. In 2004, two years after his last international match, he started working for the German Football Association as manager of the German national football team. Although the German national team has failed in recent major tournaments, Bierhoff has been a partner in outstanding successes, most notably the 2014 World Cup victory in Brazil when his country beat the host country 7–1 in the semi-finals, and then Argentina in the final. But Germany had been eliminated from the World Cup group stage for the second time in a row, having been excluded from the final price of European competition last summer, and it was not clear how Bierhoff’s resignation could affect Hansi Flick’s future. , team coach. German Football Association president Bernd Neuendorf, coach Hansi Flick and DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke are scheduled to meet this week to analyze the reasons for the team’s poor performance at the World Cup.