Germany’s football federation has told its own head coach to stop analysing rivals from a studio chair.
DFB sporting director Matthias Sammer used his Sky programme on Monday to pick apart remarks Jürgen Klopp had made days earlier as an in-studio analyst for Bayern Munich’s 2-2 Champions League draw at Arsenal.
During that broadcast, Klopp said he had “not fully understood” Vincent Kompany’s out-of-possession system at Bayern and questioned where Harry Kane fits into it, comments that, according to Goal, prompted a sharp reaction from inside the federation.
‘He’s doing himself no favours’
Sammer’s objection was less about the content than the setting. The Germany head coach, he argued, no longer gets a free pass to critique rivals on television. On the Sammer & Basile show on Sky, he said Klopp had “somewhat underestimated” the weight of now being national-team coach and that the remarks were “unnecessary” because they created “discussions we currently don’t need”.
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“He’s doing himself no favours with that,” Sammer added, while stressing Klopp was “a big and strong personality” who could handle the criticism.
Weight of the office
Sammer framed the row as bigger than a TV booking, telling Sky that Klopp now holds the highest coaching office in the country while Kompany holds the top job at club level with the reigning Bundesliga champions. For the two to give the public impression that one did not understand the other was, he said, not good for the German game.
He was careful not to turn the critique into a vote of no confidence, adding that he was glad Klopp was Germany’s national-team coach.
Klopp was confirmed as Germany head coach on 24 July 2026 and officially started on 15 August, with a contract running through the 2030 World Cup.
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Germany’s next matches are in the Nations League group stage: away to Serbia in Belgrade on Friday, 13 November, and at home to the Netherlands at Berlin’s Olympiastadion on Monday, 16 November.
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