Accusation of falsification of vaccination records: the beginning of the case and great damage

At the very end of the game, the Markus beginning case was forgotten for a few moments.

When Werder Bremen used a highly controversial penalty to make it 1-1 in the ninth minute of stoppage time in the second division soccer duel with Schalke 04 on Saturday evening, most of the 42,100 fans in the Weserstadion cheered.

At the final whistle, there was not only an emotional final phase behind the Bremen team, but also a turbulent period of around 48 hours.

On the match day at 10.40 a.m., Werder confirmed the resignation of coach Anfang and Kotrainer Florian Junge.

Instead of preparing the team for the game, both said goodbye to the players.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

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The 47-year-old beginning is accused of using a false certificate to prove his corona vaccination. The Bremen health department filed a criminal complaint against the beginning. The prosecutor opened an investigation on Friday. This also applies to the 35 year old boy; what exactly he is accused of is unclear. Beginning rejects the allegations. Nevertheless, the two coaches offered to resign. The club accepted. "The allegation that is in the room is massive," said managing director Frank Baumann on Saturday in an interview published by the club.

The public prosecutor's office has since confiscated the vaccination certificate from the start.

It is now being examined.

A result should not be long in coming.

"To what extent the vaccination card is actually wrong, we will be able to clarify promptly," said public prosecutor Frank Passade of the German press agency (dpa).

Radio Bremen and the Deichstube portal had previously reported on the confiscation.

Accordingly, the police came to the stadium on Friday evening - with a search warrant for the private apartments of the beginning and the young.

A search was not necessary, however, as both showed themselves to be cooperative and handed over the requested documents.

"Markus, you beginner"

Beginning said in the club's announcement on Saturday morning: "Due to the extremely stressful situation for the club, the team, my family and myself, I have decided that I will end my job as Werder Bremen's head coach with immediate effect." had only started his job at the relegated Bundesliga in the summer. The fans of his previous club, Darmstadt 98, mocked the trainer, who had been in disarray on Saturday. “Be in solidarity? Markus, you beginner ”, it said on a poster. There were also chants towards the beginning.

On Thursday evening, the investigation had become known towards the beginning. The trainer then said, "Like every other double-vaccinated citizen, he had received both of my vaccinations in an official vaccination center and received the appropriate sticker in the yellow vaccination card." He then "had the vaccination certificate digitized in the pharmacy". The beginning “naturally assumed that everything would be in order”. According to the Deichstube, the batch number of the vaccine and a vaccination date should be inconsistent in the trainer's evidence. A vaccination appointment should overlap with a deployment as a Werder trainer.

After the club had confronted him with the allegations, the beginning declared that everything went correctly and that he had been vaccinated. The club trusted the information provided by its employee, before the beginning, after new developments and information from managing director Frank Baumann, decided to resign on Friday evening. "The allegations are extremely serious," said Baumann again before the game against Schalke on TV broadcaster Sky, without giving details. According to Baumann, the health department had a copy of the vaccination card from the beginning, after the player Marco Friedl had tested positive and the authorities checked the consequences for contact persons.

Baumann's colleague, Managing Director Klaus Filbry, gave insights into the process, which led the club to rethink the assessment of the situation: “The decisive factor was that we had another visit from the police in the Weser Stadium on Friday evening.

There we received very clear circumstantial evidence, ”he said on Saturday evening.

Filbry did not provide any details on these indications.

“Based on the circumstantial evidence, we would of course have dealt with the consequences under labor law.

First of all with the subject of leave of absence, but then possibly also with a suspected dismissal. "